Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004

If a trustee is appointed, or the Commission assumes the office of trustee, under section 432 in respect of payments of compensation and other benefits mentioned in paragraph 432(1)(a), the payments are payable to the trustee.

A trustee may invest those payments and interest on those payments in accordance with section 434 or 435.

The trust funds may be dealt with in the following ways:

the funds may be applied for the benefit of the person who is entitled to the compensation or other benefit, a member of that person’s family, or a dependant of that person, as the trustee sees fit;

if the trust is terminated during the life of that person—the trust funds must be transferred to that person;

if that person dies before the trust is terminated—the trust funds must be paid or transferred to:

the legal personal representative of the deceased person as part of the estate of the deceased person; or

if there is no legal personal representative and the Commission is satisfied that no application will be made for probate of the will or letters of administration of the estate of the deceased person—the person who the Commission determines is best entitled to them.

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(a), the members of a person’s family are taken to include the following (without limitation):

a partner of the person;

a stepchild or an adopted child of the person, or someone of whom the person is a stepchild or an adopted child;

someone who is a child of the person, or someone of whom the person is a child, because of the definition of child in this Act;

anyone else who would be a relative of the person if someone mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) is taken to be a member of the person’s family.