Our regular round-up of what Noel Whittaker is writing in the press — and why it matters to you.
If your will was drawn up a few years ago and includes a testamentary trust, Noel Whittaker's latest column is worth your attention. Writing for YourLifeChoices, he argues that the tax ground under older wills has shifted. The estate planning rules many of us signed off on were built for a tax system that is about to change.
The trigger is the tax legislation that came out of the May Budget. From 1 July 2027, a new capital gains tax (CGT) regime replaces the familiar 50 per cent discount with cost-base indexation and introduces a 30 per cent minimum tax on capital gains. Testamentary trusts — trusts created by your will to hold an inheritance for your beneficiaries — were granted an exemption after earlier drafts caught them in the net, but Noel points out that the concession has limits. It covers assets that come from the deceased estate, and how and when assets are transferred can determine whether it applies at all. Selling inside the estate and handing an asset to a beneficiary first can produce very different tax outcomes.
There's a practical warning here for anyone in their 40s or 50s, whether you're writing your own will or likely to be an executor for your parents: keep records. Under the new rules, executors may need documentation on purchases, improvements and past rollovers going back decades.
None of this means testamentary trusts have stopped being useful — quite the opposite. It means a will drafted for the old rules should be checked against the new ones.
"A testamentary trust is not a tax dodge. It is a set of protective walls around an inheritance."
Read the full article: Got an older will? Why it could be time for another look — Noel Whittaker, YourLifeChoices, 3 September 2026.
Want the full picture on wills, executors, trusts and the tax that follows death? Wills, Death & Taxes Made Simple walks you through it in plain English — buy direct from the author for $22.95, delivered instantly as PDF + EPUB.