Memo · Trusts & Estate Planning
Before a family trust election is made: specified individual, control test and the year
Note of the steps on the ATO family trusts page before a trustee makes a family trust election. It is not the approved form. The form already has a completion guide in the library.
- Kind
- Memo. An internal or advice memo.
- Where it applies
- Australia, Commonwealth
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for Australia and Commonwealth.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client asks whether to make a family trust election, including for an earlier income year. The election is made in writing in the approved form, after the specified income year has ended.
Used for these tasks
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may set out the questions on the ATO page and leave the answers blank. The lawyer decides whether the election is made and who the specified individual is.
AI may
- List the income year the client has asked about and whether it has ended
- List the people who, on the file, can control income or capital of the trust
- Record that the approved form is a separate document
AI must not
- Must not complete or sign the election
- Must not choose the specified individual
- Must not state that the family control test is passed
The lawyer checks
- The specified individual is alive at the time the election is made. The page says an election cannot be made for a person who has died or who has not been born
- The trust passes the family control test at the end of the specified income year, on the test the page states for trusts
- An earlier year is specified only if the page's conditions from the start of that year to 30 June before the election are met
- The client is told that the election is not set and forget, and that the ATO has no power to extend the time to revoke or vary it
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Trusts & Estate Planning
- Deed of appointment of new trustee and retirement of existing trustee (discretionary or unit trust)
- Discretionary (family) trust deed
- Special disability trust: setup checklist from the Services Australia requirements that were opened
- Trust funding checklist (United States)
- Map of a superannuation death benefit nomination against dependants and the estate
- Deed of change of appointor (and guardian) of a discretionary trust
- Trustee distribution resolution with section 100A risk notes
- Client letter on funding a trust (United States)
- Letter from a beneficiary requesting trust documents and information from the trustee
- Family group map before a distribution from a trust that has made a family trust election
- Family trust election, revocation or variation (ATO approved form): completion guide
- Asset and ownership table for a trust (United States)
- Deed of variation of trust deed (with resettlement analysis worksheet)
- Trustee resolution and checklist on the vesting of a discretionary trust
- Trust control and signature map (United States)
- Testamentary discretionary trust clauses for a will
- Reconciliation of unpaid present entitlements to a private company, while the ATO reviews Division 7A
- Checklist: AI-assisted review of existing trust deeds and variations
All precedents for Trusts & Estate Planning · Tasks and AI use in this area