WiZDOM Accounting & IPS – Who, Why, What – 26th November 2025

In this weeks webinar, Derek Sky from Pacific Law and Kamal Power from Wizdom Accounting unpack the often-confusing world of investment structures — what they are, why they matter, and how the legal and accounting teams work together to support investors.

The presentation clarifies how IP Structures (formerly Investor Pacific Structures) operates, how the professional divisions collaborate, and why getting your structuring right from the start protects you from unnecessary tax, liability, and costly amendments down the track.

Understanding the Role of Each Professional Arm

The webinar begins by mapping out the different parts of the ILRE professional ecosystem—legal, accounting, loans, and financial advisory—and how each interacts with IP Structures. Pacific Law advises on legal strategy, risk and asset protection, while Wizdom Accounting handles tax, compliance, registrations and financial structuring. IP Structures sits between both, ensuring every new structure is established with coordinated legal and accounting expertise, avoiding the risk of one side making decisions without the other.

What IP Structures Actually Does

Derek explains that IPS was created to provide a unified, holistic approach to setting up companies, trusts and more complex arrangements. Instead of having investors bounce between independent accountants and lawyers, the IP Structures process ensures both disciplines are involved from the outset. This prevents mismatched structures, incorrect clauses, or “shelf-product” documents that don’t suit the investor’s actual risk profile, tax position, or intended deal. With more than 8,000 structures completed over the past decade, the team has seen nearly every scenario and emphasises the importance of tailoring—not template documents.

Why Proper Structuring Matters

The presenters highlight two main reasons for using structures: asset protection and tax minimisation.
They walk through how companies, discretionary trusts, unit trusts and SMSFs can be used to buy property, run a business, undertake a development or participate in a joint venture. Throughout the session, they stress the dangers of getting the structure wrong:
— costly amendments,
— stamp duty triggers,
— unintended tax consequences,
— reduced borrowing capacity, and
— exposure of personal assets if something goes wrong.

A significant warning is given about attempting to use incorrect or pre-made documents bought elsewhere: fixing them later almost always costs more than setting them up correctly from the beginning.

The Legal Perspective: Control, Roles and Risk

Derek outlines the key decisions made during a structuring appointment:
— who should be directors,
— who should be shareholders,
— who should be appointors or beneficiaries,
— how borrowing risk flows through guarantees,
— how succession works if someone passes away.

He explains why directors carry personal risk, how personal guarantees compromise some asset-protection benefits, and how tools like gift-and-loan-back arrangements can protect personal assets such as the family home. The session also addresses common misconceptions around trusts, including the belief that a trust with only one “named” beneficiary is ineffective—something Derek clarifies as incorrect.

The Accounting Perspective: Tax, Registrations and Profit Distribution

Kamal outlines how the accounting team evaluates the tax impact of different structures, including GST considerations, company versus trust tax rates, and the use of bucket companies or family members to reduce tax. She explains how funds move into a trust, how distributions work, and how different entity types affect profit allocation or capital gains. Registrations such as ABNs, TFNs and GST are covered, along with practical issues like invoicing, on-lending, and how interest deductions work when servicing loans across multiple entities.

When to Set Up a Structure

One of the strongest messages: set up your structure before you sign a contract.
Both presenters share real examples of buyers who unknowingly triggered double stamp duty by signing contracts in their own name and trying to “change it later.” While structures can be created very quickly, the recommendation is always to have them in place before going to market—particularly for investors in states where nominee provisions don’t apply.

Examples Across Property, Development, Business and JVs

The session walks through how structuring decisions change depending on the type of deal:
— For developers, considerations include the number of investors, borrowing capacity, whether the project is a flip or a hold, and how profits flow.
— For long-term investors, issues like land tax thresholds, capital gains discounts, and succession planning determine which structure is best.
— For business owners, separating assets from operations may be essential, especially when valuable equipment, intellectual property or licensing requirements are involved.
— For joint ventures, the structure depends heavily on what each party contributes—risk, labour, serviceability or capital.

Each scenario reinforces the same principle: no structure exists in isolation; the legal, tax and lending implications all interact.

What IP Structures Does Not Do

Derek clarifies that the IP Structures team facilitates documents and registrations, but does not give legal, accounting or strategic advice. Advice comes only from Pacific Law or Wizdom Accounting. IP Structures simply executes the structure once the professional guidance has been given, ensuring clean documentation and consistency.

The Value of a Coordinated Professional Team

The presenters close by emphasising the strength of having legal, accounting, lending and advisory arms that communicate with one another. Whether it’s changes in land tax legislation, borrowing rules, ATO treatment or lender acceptance of certain entities, the teams constantly share updates so investors don’t find themselves with structures that no longer function as intended.

Action Items

• Send email to info@ipstructures.com.au or call the provided phone number to get in touch with the IP Structures team.
• Reach out to the Wizdom Accounting team to discuss the process of paying yourself from a Reno/flip project.
• Book an appointment to discuss a specific situation, such as setting up a structure for a commercial property investment or exiting a joint venture.