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For Australia's Accountants & Advisers

For 30 Years,Grant Abbott Has Builtthe Moat Around the Castle.

His whole career comes down to one idea. A family's wealth is kept or lost in the structure, not the market. Most funds are built to grow. Very few are built to survive a death, a divorce, or a claim in court.

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Experience
Since 1994
More than thirty years in SMSF and family wealth protection law.
Author
Seven books
Including Family Wealth Protection, a #1 best seller on Amazon.
Accreditation
Chairman, SAPEPAA
The association for succession, asset protection and estate planning advisers.
The firm
LY Legal
The specialist SMSF and estate planning law firm he practises through.
The Real Risk

Your Name Is on the Structure. When It's Tested, So Are You.

You set up the fund. You signed off the deed. You did the nomination. Then years go by, and one day the structure gets tested. A member dies. A marriage breaks down. A creditor comes looking. If it doesn't hold, the family doesn't blame the law. They look at the person whose name is on the file.

And the real danger usually isn't in the advice you gave. It's in the thing nobody checked. A binding nomination a good lawyer can pull apart. A deed that was never built for what this family actually needs. It sits there quietly for years, and by the time it surfaces it's too late to fix. As Grant puts it, a nomination with a weak deed behind it is “like a paper bag” the moment someone contests it.

Death

A member dies, and the money doesn't go where anyone intended. The nomination didn't hold, and you're the one who drafted it.

Divorce

A marriage ends, and wealth the client thought was safe gets pulled into the settlement. The structure that would have kept it out was never put in place.

Litigation

A creditor or a claim reaches straight through to the client's assets, because nothing was ever set up to stand in the way.

Division 296

The new tax on large balances catches a client out, and they want to know why their adviser didn't see it coming.

None of this is rare. It's what happens the day a structure is finally tested, and it lands on the adviser who set it up. The good news is that every one of these is preventable, as long as the structure is built right the first time. That's what you sort out with Grant.

Grant Abbott, SMSF and family wealth protection expert
The mind behind the method

Meet Grant Abbott.

You've probably been using his thinking for years without knowing it was his. Here's the man behind the books and the strategies your practice already runs on.

Grant has worked in SMSF and family wealth protection law since 1994. That's more than thirty years turning the SIS Act, the rulings and the case law into structures that actually hold up when they're tested.

He's written seven books on super and wealth protection, including Family Wealth Protection, a #1 best seller on Amazon. He chairs SAPEPAA, the association for succession, asset protection and estate planning advisers, and he practises through LY Legal, the specialist SMSF and estate planning law firm.

He knows the SIS Act and the rulings inside out. And for three decades he's taught the profession the one thing his whole method comes down to: keep a family's wealth out of the estate, and out of the client's own name.

A session with Grant is more than a second opinion on one file. It's where you start offering clients the estate and asset protection work most firms send elsewhere, and take it on with Grant's experience behind you.

Since 1994Seven books#1 Amazon: Family Wealth ProtectionChairman, SAPEPAALY Legal
The books the profession learns from
Family Wealth Protection
#1 Amazon Best Seller
The Guru's Guide to Self-Managed Super Funds
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The one idea

Assets in Your Own Name Have No Moat Around the Castle.

Take away every structure Grant has ever drawn and one principle holds everything up. Anything a client owns in their own name, or that lands in their estate, is exposed. A family provision claim can reach it. A creditor can reach it. A family law settlement can reach it. The whole job is moving what matters to the far side of the moat, where none of that reaches.

Put wealth into the estate and you've handed it to whoever turns up to fight over it. Leaving a difficult child out of the will doesn't disinherit them. If they are an eligible person, a spouse, a child, a dependant, they can still contest it, and the court doesn't ask who deserved what. It asks whether the estate made adequate provision for their proper needs. So Grant does it the other way round. He leaves nothing in the estate worth fighting over.

FAMILY PROVISION CLAIM CREDITOR FAMILY LAW
“If there's no assets in the estate, then how can you make a family provision claim?”
Grant Abbott
The routes out of the estate
  • The auto-reversionary pension. The income stream reverts to a chosen dependant under the fund's own deed, not through the will, so it's built to sit outside the estate.
  • The SMSF death benefits trust, or a life-insurance trust. The benefit is paid straight into the trust instead of through the estate, out of reach of most family provision claims and the beneficiaries' own creditors.
  • The Family Protection Trust. Grant's bloodline structure moves the wealth into a living trust while the client is alive, so by the time they're gone there's little left in the estate worth fighting over.

Which route is right for a given client is never off the shelf. It's the work Grant does with you.

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The hard ones

Where a Structure Holds or Fails.

These are the real ones advisers bring. A wrong call hides for years, then surfaces in a claim, a divorce, or a death. Open one, or bring your own.

Death“What do you actually do in the first 48 hours after an SMSF member dies?”Open →
Protection“How does a client's existing trust deed stack up against a Family Protection Trust, and where does it fall short?”Open →
Structure“How do you move a client from a discretionary trust to a family protection trust?”Open →
Tax“Are a client's structures still right after the latest Division 296 changes?”Open →
The Offer

A Private Strategy Session With Grant.

More than a second opinion

Bring one real client situation, the one you're least sure about, and work it through with Grant himself.

What you leave with
  • The situation, solved. A fund, a deed, a BDBN you're not sure about. You'll leave knowing exactly how to make it hold. His rule: if it's confusing for him, it's confusing for a judge.
  • New services you can offer. The estate and asset protection work most firms send away, mapped out so you can bring it in-house, sign it, and bill it.
  • Confidence, with Grant behind you. You're not guessing. You're giving your clients a more complete service, backed by thirty years of his experience.
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Before You Book

Three Questions, Answered Straight.

Am I even allowed to act on this?
That comes down to your own authorisation, and it's the first thing Grant sorts out in the room. What you can deliver is governed by your accreditation. Grant chairs SAPEPAA, the accreditation pathway built for exactly this work. So if there's a gap between what you want to offer and what you're authorised to do, the session maps out how to close it.
Is the session actually with Grant?
Yes, with Grant himself, not a junior trading on his name. Thirty years in the field, seven books, and he chairs SAPEPAA.
What does it cost?
The session is free. You'll leave with a clear read on where you stand, whether or not you work with Grant after that.
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For Families & Trustees

Not an adviser? You're still in the right place.

This page is written for accountants and advisers. But if you're a trustee looking after your own family's wealth, you're welcome here too. Start where Grant starts everyone, with his book, Family Wealth Protection. It's the plain English guide to keeping a family's wealth out of the estate and out of harm's way. Ask a question here any time, and when you're ready to talk it through for your own family, come and see Grant.

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Your Private Session

Pick a Time With Grant.

Bring the client situation you're least sure about, a deed, a fund, a structure that has to hold up, and work it through with Grant himself. You'll leave with a clearer read on it than you came in with.

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