Trusts Act 2025 (Qld) — Key changes for estate lawyers

Jurisdiction: Queensland

Legislation Update | Estates

Trusts Act 2025 (Qld)

Commencement date: 28 April 2026

Key takeaways

• The District Court of Queensland will have jurisdiction over lower-value disputes

• Simplified processes for trustee appointment and removal (and clear exclusion criteria)

• Codified trustee duties

• Expanded delegation powers, but with some compliance risks

• Expanded powers for beneficiaries to recover wrongfully distributed trust property

Introduction

Queensland’s new Trusts Act 2025 (Qld) was proclaimed into force on 28 April 2026.

The Act replaces the 53-year-old Trusts Act 1973 (Qld) with a framework that better reflects the realities of modern trust law and practice. While many provisions build upon the existing legislation, some newly introduced concepts offer fresh challenges for lawyers advising trustees and beneficiaries.

District Court jurisdiction

Perhaps the most consequential reform is extending the District Court’s jurisdiction to trust matters when the trust property (or amount claimed) is within the District Court’s monetary threshold. This will help improve accessibility, and reduce costs and delay in litigation for clients.

Lower-value trust disputes can now be heard in the District Court, a meaningful win for accessibility and cost.

New and updated definitions

The Act aligns definitions of ‘capacity’ and ‘impaired capacity’ with the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld) and the Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld).

A definition has been introduced for ‘guardian’ of a child, resolving ambiguity in the previous Act.

Importantly, the Act adopts the concept of an ‘appointor’ from modern trust practice. Under the Act, the appointor is the person who can appoint new trustees regardless of the name given to the role (for example, some deeds refer to this person as the ‘principal’).

Whatever the deed calls them, whether 'principal', 'guardian' or 'protector', the Act now treats them as the appointor.

Streamlined appointment and removal processes

The Act creates streamlined processes to appoint and remove trustees if there is a vacancy and the ‘appointor’ is unable or unwilling to act. There are now legislative pathways to fill a vacancy in the trusteeship when there is a continuing trustee, or where a sole trustee has died, lost capacity, or become insolvent.

However, where a sole trustee dies, there has been no change to the requirement to notify the Public Trustee of Queensland to vest the trust property in the replacement trustee.

The Act also now specifically excludes children, bankrupts, insolvent companies and those disqualified by court order from being appointed as trustees.

Codification of duties and rights

Part 5 of the Act codifies key common law duties, including to:

• act honestly and in good faith

• exercise care, diligence and skill when managing the trust

• act in the beneficiaries’ best interests

• maintain accurate records

Trustees will need to be advised of a new requirement that trust records must be preserved for three years from the termination of the trust.

Importantly, the Act does not displace the common law, so new codified duties apply alongside existing common law rights and obligations.

The new codified duties apply alongside, not instead of, existing common law rights and obligations.

Delegation powers

Trustees now have expanded powers to delegate management of the trust during illness or absence from Queensland. Instruments of delegation must meet formal requirements set out in the Act. The trustee can also authorise someone to exercise their investment powers. In both cases, a trustee remains liable for their delegate’s acts.

Clear and careful drafting of instruments of delegation, together with oversight of the delegate, will be critical in helping your clients manage their risk.

Beneficiaries’ rights

Beneficiaries gain broader enforcement powers to pursue wrongfully distributed trust property directly against third parties, without first exhausting their remedies against the trustee. This may reshape litigation strategies for beneficiaries.

What this means for practitioners

The Trusts Act 2025 (Qld) modernises Queensland’s trust law while preserving the underlying common law framework. For lawyers, this means:

• advising clients on expanded duties and risks, and

• preparing for the shift in dispute resolution to the District Court for lower-value trust claims.

You can review the new Act here: Trusts Act 2025 (Qld)

Now is the time to review existing trust deeds, update delegation precedents, and brief trustee clients on the new record-keeping requirements.

Log in to LEAP to access the latest precedents, or contact us to get started.

Disclaimer: The information provided in the article in this section is of a general nature should not be construed as specific advice or relied upon in lieu of appropriate professional advice. Whilst LEAP uses commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the information in this article is up to date at the time of publication, LEAP does not warrant its accuracy, currency or completeness and excludes all loss or damage howsoever arising (including through negligence) in connection with the information contained in the article.