When approaching retirement it pays to look at the structure of your financial structure and work out whether it will continue to provide benefits after finishing working life or will it be a millstone.
There are issues for people who have private companies and trusts when they are applying for means testing. Means testing for private companies and trusts is complex and the assessments can and do go back 5 years. This means planning is required at least 5 years in advance.
The following real life case study shows how lack of planning can create problems down the track. This was nasty but avoidable.