Independent Trustees

We recommend that every Trust has an independent Trustee who is someone who does not derive a benefit from the assets of the Trust, but acts as a co-Trustee with the other Trustees. This helps ensure that there is an independent influence on the trust providing any unbiased direction on the trust’s management. It can also protect the interests of the Beneficiaries where the non-independent Trustees may have a disagreement as to how trust assets are to be utilised.

An Independent Trustee can also prevent any legal challenges to the validity of the Trust, as there will always have been an independent decision-maker when the Trust has made decisions on the assets’ maintenance and on distributions from the Trust.

When we are forming a trust for you, we advocate the incorporation of a trustee company to act as the independent trustee on your Trust. This trustee company would be controlled by Prudentia Law and offers:
- Independence in decision making;
- Legal knowledge to the management of the Trust
- Continuity if something happens to you.

By utilising an Independent Trustee Company this provides you with an extremely flexible Trust structure. For example, if you move to a remote area and decide to utilise a new legal firm’s services, the control of the Independent Trustee Company can easily be transferred to that other firm by way of a shareholder and director change.