Australian Tycoon Loses Family Battle Over Multi-Billion Dollar Trust - Media

Tom Burroughes

1 June 2015

An Australian court ruling has delivered a high-profile example of a family row about control of a trust, raising questions about the issue of vesting dates and tax liabilities in such cases.

Bianca Rinehart, daughter of Gina Rinehart, the iron ore tycoon, has been handed control of the multi-billion dollar family trust. A New South Wales court judge has ordered control to be transferred to the daughter, following a legal battle between Gina Rinehart and her two eldest children, media reports said.

The trust’s assets are worth as much as A$5 billion ($3.83 billion), according to reports.

John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart - along with their sister Hope Welker - launched legal action against their mother in September 2011 on the back of a letter she sent them three days before their youngest sister, Ginia Rinehart, turned 25 and the family trust was due to vest.

Mrs Rinehart, who came top of the 2015 BRW Rich list that was issued last week, has an estimated personal worth of more than A$14 billion. She had changed the vesting date to 2068.

In the 3 September message, Mrs Rinehart said if the trust, which listed her children as beneficiaries, vested they would become liable to pay capital gains tax and they would become bankrupt, media reports said, and she argued that this impact could only be avoided if the vesting date was extended.

Justice Paul Brereton said Mrs Rinehart and her chief financial officer, Jay Newby, had received no such tax advice. In the fight for control of the trust, Justice Brereton found that Mrs Rinehart had used tactics bordering on intimidation and sought to wield her influential connections, reports said.