Disability trust

A disability trust helps you put a plan in place to ensure your loved ones can access the funds they need for ongoing care

Liston Newton Advisory
Liston Newton Advisory is rated 4.8 from 32 reviews

We make setting up a disability trust easy

When those caring for loved ones with a disability, questions will arise of how best to continue caring for them, and how to put plans in place if you’re no longer around. It’s a difficult question—but fortunately, it has a clear answer.

At Liston Newton Advisory, we can work with you to help you establish a disability trust for your family members, and to ensure it's drafted into your Will to keep them supported in the future. This enables you to put a structure in place that guarantees assets are made available to fund ongoing care and support for your family member, without compromising their eligibility for a disability support pension.

  • Disability trust setup
  • Ongoing tax compliance
  • Estate planning advice
  • Complex will advice
  • Powers of attorney
  • Tax structuring

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Learn more about your business with our comprehensive guides

At Liston Newton Advisory, we take pride in helping business owners get more out of their hard work. Our downloadable guides can give you an in-depth look at strategies and technologies that will help your business grow.

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Expert disability trust support and guidance

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Holistic advice

We help guide you through the legal and financial process of setting up a disability trust, and deliver advice that covers your entire financial and family situation.

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A wealth of experience

Liston Newton Advisory has over 40 years of experience helping clients with disability trust arrangements look after their families. Leverage our experience to understand what’s needed in your estate plan.

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Access trusted networks

We help you tap into our trusted network of lawyers, solicitors, and estate specialists, so you can make the right decisions for you and your family’s future.

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Long-term client partnership

A well-crafted estate plan can last for generations to come, so we partner with you for the long term to ensure your family’s wealth is secure.

Learn more about your business with our comprehensive guides

At Liston Newton Advisory, we take pride in helping business owners get more out of their hard work. Our downloadable guides can give you an in-depth look at strategies and technologies that will help your business grow.

  • Discover tax strategies and business structures available to you
  • Understand and apply new business management technology
  • Get in touch with us for information tailored to your business

Our disability trust specialists

When looking after a family member with a disability, thinking about the future may not always feel easy. Our estate planning team understands this, and works with you to help set clear goals and a realistic strategy that takes your family’s unique situation into account.

We can help you ensure that you’re able to set aside the right assets to create an income source for this specific structure, and that a robust disability trust is also written into your Will. We ensure the trust itself is managed securely for the future, so you take comfort that your family member is looked after, no matter what happens.

Kieran Liston, Director | Consultant

Meet our expert team

We have worked with Liston Newton's Accountancy and Advisory Team for over a decade. During that time, our business has grown substantially both organically and through purchases. This wouldn’t have been possible without Liston Newton Advisory to assist with our business planning, providing proactive advice and ensuring our accounts were always compliant in a complex and volatile industry.
Karsten Horne
CEO, Reho Travel
Liston Newton's Accountants analysed our financial and business situation and helped us implement strategies to improve our position. Their strategies turned our business from making a loss, to recording a 6-month net profit of 36 per cent. And we are now on track to show a 240 per cent increase in turnover over the next financial year.
Lisa Clarke
SL Constructions
Liston Newton helped us move our accounting over to Xero. Their Accountant managed the set up and training so we felt comfortable with the software. We now have all our processes streamlined which gives us improved visibility of our business performance. This has allowed us to open 2 more stores without a significant increase in administration effort.
Peter Luskan
Pandora

We help you manage the future of your family’s wealth

When helping you manage the setup of a disability trust, our expert team works with you to make sure you understand how this fits into your broader estate planning. We ensure you know what’s involved, what the disability trust benefits are, and what this means for its specific beneficiaries.

This is all part of our unique methodology to ensure you meet your personal wealth goals. This framework helps you ensure your family’s financial future is secure, and your loved ones with disability are always able to access the support they need.

Find out how we do things
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Qualified and experienced disability trust experts

We’ll help you map out every aspect of your estate planning so you get peace of mind.

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Get peace of mind that your loved ones are looked after

Our disability trust specialists can help you plan, set up, and manage disability trusts for your family members, so you know they’re looked after for the future.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a disability trust in Australia?

A disability trust is a special type of trust structure that allows parents, guardians, and immediate family members to plan for future care of their loved ones with disability. By using this type of trust, the individual can crate a structure that ensures finances and assets are available to provide an income stream for their loved one. It can also build provisions into their Will to maintain the trust should you no longer be around.

A disability trust works in the same way that a typical trust structure does. Profits from the disability trust are distributed to its beneficiary, and taxed at their marginal tax rates. These profits can then be used to pay for ongoing care, support, accommodation, and anything else the person with disability needs as part of their care.

What is the purpose of a disability trust?

The purpose of a disability trust is to provide payment for ongoing care and support for people with disability. It enables parents to ensure they're always able to pay for care for children with disability, whether they're still around or not.

It also works to augment the disability pension that the person will also receive, and provide them with more support and care when their primary carers aren’t there anymore.

What are disability trust benefits?

The key disability trust benefits are that under the Services Australia provisions, the assets within a disability trust do not impede the individual’s eligibility to access any disability pension. This means that any income generated from the disability trust is exempt from any assets test that may otherwise reduce their disability pension.

How do you set up a disability trust in Australia?

To set up a disability trust in Australia, you must first assess if the person for whom you are setting up the disability trust is eligible. If they meet specific Centrelink or Veteran’s Affairs criteria, then they are eligible to become the beneficiary of the disability trust.

You can then work with a specialist to create a disability trust structure for your loved one, and ensure that the disability trust is written into your Will so their future needs are taken care of. This must be undertaken by a specialist legal team. Liston Newton Advisory can put you in contact with our recommended legal team to help you through this.

How much does it cost to set up a disability trust in Australia?

You can expect to pay anywhere from $3,000 - $5,000 + GST to get the correct legal advice and paperwork to draft a disability trust in Australia.

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