Hi Tiger555,You'll need to understand that trusts are a separate...

Hi Tiger555,

You'll need to understand that trusts are a separate legal entity, and there are reasons why companies and individuals use them.

There are 3 major roles in a trust. The trustee, the appointor, and the beneficiaries.

The trustee is the main operator of the trust, they decide who gets the payouts, they also decide what investments the trust will make.
The appointor is the role that appoints the trustee, they have ultimate control of the trust.
The beneficiaries are the people that will receive the income of the trust.

As an example, my wife and I created a trust. We also set up a company that is set as the trustee of this trust. We (as individuals) are the sole directors of this company. This means that we are the trustees AND the appointors AND the beneficiaries of this trust.

So this means we have total control and ownership over the assets inside this trust.

I do this for a number of reasons, there are significant tax benefits and also significant asset protections afforded to these assets. Here's some examples:

1. If i get sued personally, they can't take what's in the trust that I run... I'm just the director of a company, that acts as the trustee for the assets)

2. If this trust makes 100 million dollars, I could technically use the tax free or low tax thresholds of my entire extended family to make the most of the tax benefits, and the rest i can put through a company that only pays 30% tax, instead of the 45% individual tax that we'd have to pay.  

3. It's also great to separate assets from each other, say I owned a house... someone injures themselves in this house, they sue and can take all the other assets that are owned by the same legal entity. Separating these legally risky assets from non-risk assets is essential.

The point is, I control and run the trust, but it's a completely separate legal entity for tax and protection reasons.