You can't take it with you...but you should do this
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Why is having a will considered essential for every Australian?
Hello and welcome to the Australians Money Puzzle Podcast. I'm James Kirby. Welcome aboard. If I imagine you've been bewildered with all these stories about what's going on around inheritance and wills and trusts in recent days, and that's probably because you've been trying to catch up with everything else that came from the budget. But there's an important show I want to do today. And it's about how to effectively Leave it all behind, okay? 'Cause you can't take it with you. And it's the perfect time to do this show. Because even if you think That you've done things right. You may not have because there have been important changes which have come down the line. My guest today is Rachel Roth. She is a lawyer.
She specializes in this area, but I know her a long time because she was for 10 years the head of Australian Philanthropic Services Foundation, where we used to tic-tac quite a bit on. All sorts of things. How are you, Rachel?
I'm good. Thanks for having me, James.
Oh, it's great to have you. And I wanted I actually want to tell listeners, bear with me, listeners, I want to tell you something about Rachel and what has happened in recent times. Because this is a story worth hearing. During the budget this year in May, which was the busiest week I've had for many years, and it was the biggest budget we've had for many years, there's enormous changes, negative gearing, capital gains, tax changes, family trust, basically 20 years of potential policy changes. came through in one budget. That was on Tuesday. On the Thursday, where everybody was starting to get a little bit exhausted, Rachel was on and I knew she was on. And I was saying to myself, gee, well, what on earth could Rachel add to the mix?
Because her area is estates and all that. And she came on and she said, Have you read all the documents? I said, I've read most of the papers. She said, There's an extremely important change in there that people haven't seen. I said, What is it? She said, There's a death tax in there. And I said, I don't know about that. I haven't seen anything. She said, There's a death tax in there. I'm a lawyer. I know how to read these documents. And if you look at it, It says on the changes to family trusts where the thirty percent minimum will be imposed, fixed trusts are allowed. And I said, Yeah and she said, Yeah, but testamentary discretionary trusts by definition aren't allowed. And I said, I don't see that. And she said, That's what it means.
So I called a couple of people. They said, Oh, I don't know, I'm not sure. So then I went to what will we say? Sources close to government. I said Give me a line on this. Is it true or false? Testamentary discretionary trusts are going to be excluded. And they said, Yes, but And at this stage it was about six o'clock in the evening. And I had to call our news desk and I had to say a very important story, and I know it's late, but we gotta do this. And they said, How long do you need? I said, I need about two hours. And that night we did the story, and it was quite a story, let me tell you. A debt tax buried in the budget. Turned out to be the first major reversal in the budget that the PM had to come out and clarify, and Jim Chalmers had to reverse.
And since then, of course, he has had to reverse several things, capital gains and startups, some issues now with family trust. But that was the the first one. So when Rachel says something matters, it matters. Okay. Okay.
How
was that, Rachel? Was that a fair I think that's a fair assessment. Do you recall things in that fashion?
Yeah. Budget night is always my favorite night. I have no friends on budget night because I sit down and unpick the papers in detail with a nice glass of something. And I remember speaking to you the next morning, going, James needs to know about this. But now understanding the detail of your silence, I understand what you were doing, going and checking and speaking to people about it. But you weren't the only one. I spoke to a number of skeptics who thought, No, no, surely not. And it really wasn't the detail and not many people would be looking for it.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why is having a will considered essential for every Australian?
0:11–4:33
2
What hidden “death tax” did the 2024 budget introduce and why does it matter?
4:33–9:40
3
How do testamentary discretionary trusts protect beneficiaries from the new 30% trust tax?
9:40–17:16
4
When should I add a testamentary trust to my will and what are the key features?
17:16–23:30
5
What are the recent family‑trust reforms and how could they affect my existing trust structure?
23:30–29:22
6
How does the 17% death‑benefits tax on inherited super work and can it be mitigated?
29:22–33:09