Structured borrowing
The structure decides the lender list before the numbers do
Borrowing through a family trust, a unit trust or a company narrows the panel sharply. Matching the structure to the right lender, in the right order, is what keeps the file simple.
22
Lenders on panel that accept trust borrowers
0.15%
Typical rate premium over an individual borrower
100%
Of files where directors give personal guarantees
2 wks
Additional time a structured file typically takes
Who is this for?
Why people borrow through a structure
All legitimate reasons, and all of them cost you lender choice — so the benefit needs to be real.
01
Asset protection
Separating investment assets from business or professional liability. Genuinely valuable for business owners with real exposure, and largely pointless for a salaried employee.
02
Flexible income distribution
A discretionary trust allows income to be distributed among beneficiaries each year. The flexibility is real; so is the annual compliance cost.
03
Several parties in one investment
A unit trust gives unrelated investors defined proportional interests, which is far cleaner than tenants in common when one party wants to exit.
04
Succession planning
Assets in a structure pass through control of the trustee rather than through the estate, which can simplify succession and reduce the scope for dispute.
Why Lending Institute?
Where structured files stall
Almost never on serviceability. Nearly always on documentation the borrower did not know would be scrutinised.
01
We read the credit policy, not the rate sheet
Specialist lending is decided on policy detail — how a lender treats retained profits, whether a corporate trustee is acceptable, what liquidity an SMSF must retain. We track those rules across the panel and check them before we submit.
02
The file is built for the assessor
A complex file presented well is often approved where the same file, submitted raw, is declined. Financials, structure diagrams and a written explanation go in with the application, not after a query.
03
We tell you early when the answer is no
If your file will not place at a sensible rate, you will hear that in the first conversation rather than after three weeks and a credit enquiry. That honesty costs us applications and keeps our approval rate where it is.
04
Accreditation across the specialist panel
SMSF, commercial, bridging, alt-doc and credit-impaired funders each require separate accreditation and volume to maintain. We hold and use all of them.
How it works
Understand → Compare → Apply → Settle
01
Day 0
Tell us the whole story
Including the decline, the credit event or the structure you think is a problem. Nothing is placed until we understand it.
Credit impact — none
02
Days 1–10
Structure and match
Financials reviewed, the entity structure confirmed, and the file matched to funders whose policy it genuinely fits.
Credit impact — soft enquiry only
03
Weeks 2–3
Submit with the argument attached
The application goes in with financials, add-back workings and a written explanation for the assessor.
Credit impact — enquiry recorded
04
Weeks 4–8
Settle
Specialist files run longer. We manage valuations, legal review of trust deeds and the settlement booking.
Credit impact — account reported
Model the borrowing capacity of the structure
Run the numbers on the entity position, check LVR against the 80% threshold, and estimate stamp duty for the purchasing entity.
Open the calculatorsCommon questions
Trust and company questions
If yours is not here, ask it directly — you will get a straight answer, not a callback form.
Ask a broker →No — roughly half our panel does, and policies differ within that group on trustee type, deed requirements and which beneficiaries must guarantee. Discretionary trusts with a corporate trustee are the most widely accepted; unit trusts with unrelated unitholders narrow the list considerably.
Not personally. Every director of a corporate trustee, and usually every adult beneficiary, gives a personal guarantee — otherwise no lender would write the loan. The structure protects assets held outside it from unrelated claims; it does not shield you from this debt.
Legally yes, but it is a transfer of ownership, which generally triggers stamp duty on the full value and capital gains tax on any growth. In most cases the cost is prohibitive, which is exactly why the structure decision belongs before the purchase rather than after it.
Not always, but it is strongly preferred and required by several lenders. Individual trustees create complications whenever a trustee dies, resigns or is replaced, since the title must be transferred each time. A corporate trustee costs a few hundred dollars a year and removes that problem entirely.
Typically around 0.15% on the rate, a higher application fee, and eight hundred to a thousand dollars in lender legal review. Add the establishment cost and ongoing accounting, and the structure needs to be earning its keep — which for a genuine asset-protection or distribution need it usually does.
Related services
Often looked at alongside this
Supporting paragraph for this section.
Get started
Get the structure and the lender matched
Bring your accountant into the first conversation. The order these decisions happen in is what determines the cost.
Deed reviewed
Against lender policy, before lodgement.
Guarantees explained
In writing, in full, before you sign.
22 lenders
On panel and accepting trust borrowers.