Trusts

A trust is a legal arrangement that is created when a settlor sells or gifts assets such as real estate, life insurance and investments into a trust for the benefit of others.

Involvement by any of the following people in a trust may affect the entitlement to a Funeral Grant:

• the deceased person (including a deceased child) and
• a surviving partner and
• the parents of a deceased child

MSD must determine if there is any asset balance owed by the trust to any of these people, or any continuing income from the trust to a surviving partner or to the parents of a deceased child.

If the deceased person, the surviving partner, or the parents of a deceased child was getting a main benefit or Extra help, MSD may already hold details of the trust.

If details of the trust are not already held, the following information will be required.

Any balances owed by a trust to the deceased person, a surviving partner or the parents of a deceased child are assets for that person.

Asset balances will show in the trust's financial statements, or in the last Deed of Forgiveness of Debt (a legal document used to record when a person gives away their own assets).

Note assets that have been fully gifted (given away with no balance still owed) in the past cannot be included in the asset test.

Any continuing income that a surviving partner or the parents of a deceased child gets from a trust must be included in the income assessment for that person.

If there is only a home in the trust, there is no continuing income. If there are investments of any kind in the trust MSD must determine what income, if any, will continue to be paid from that investment.