Trustees Empowered to Consider Superannuation

For the beneficiary of a large damages award with insufficient mental capacity to manage their own funds, the court would typically order those funds to be held by a Public Trustee or trustee company and manage those funds under a court appointed trust for the use and benefit of the plaintiff during their lifetime. But for such beneficiaries there is potentially substantial benefit to be obtained from the transfer of some of those funds into superannuation.

Trustees failing to consider the transfer of funds into superannuation for incapacitated recipients of damages awards have been found in other jurisdictions to be liable: Re CAC [2009] QGAAT 63, but in Western Australia the authority to do so has now been clarified in two recent decisions having a significant impact upon personal injury claims.