By Rhonda Powell The Trusts Act 2019 (“Trusts Act”) comes into force on 30 January 2021. Many of the changes to the law of trusts brought about by this Act are aimed at strengthening the ability of beneficiaries to hold trustees to account. To this end, Subpart 3 sets new rules…

The role of a trustee and its variants have evolved significantly over many centuries. Grain surpluses 7,000 years BCE apparently led to the development of the concept of “bailment” and increasing trade in commodities and precious metals led to the concepts of “agency”, “brokerage”. “custody” and “mandate”.

By Henry Stokes The Trusts Act has been passed and we have commenced the 18-month countdown to its coming into effect on 30 January 2021. As is often the case with Acts where we are given time to prepare, there is a lot of information available and plenty of discussion –…

By Rhonda Powell The first major reform to trust law in the lifetime of most New Zealand lawyers will occur on 30 January 2021 when the Trusts Act 2019 comes into force. All lawyers will need to come up to speed with the new provisions and LawTalk will assist by providing…

In Guest v Guest [2019] NZCA 64, the Court of Appeal held that the trustees of a family trust, including a trust company, were liable for costs after they did not step aside in favour of an independent trustee. The Court of Appeal also held the director of the trust…

In this article, we present two perspectives on an important issue for trustees and families: the legal view from Henry Brandts-Giesen, partner at Kensington Swan, and a humanistic view from David Werdiger, experienced family adviser and international bestselling author on family business and wealth. The legal view – Henry Private wealth is…

Third party ante-nuptial trust amounts to nuptial settlementThe most recent High Court decision on s 182 of the Family Proceedings Act 1980 provides an interesting example of trust-busting in the post-Clayton era. Section 182 allows a court to make an order to vary an ante-nuptial or postnuptial settlement at the same…

The Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Pratley v Courteney [2018] NZCA 436 concerns the costs incurred by a trustee in defending a claim against trust assets. The issue for the court to determine was whether the trustee was entitled to an indemnity from the trust fund. The case provides…

The auditing requirements for issuer trust deeds are in the Financial Markets Conduct Regulations 2014 and previously in the Securities Regulations 2009 and the Deposit Takers Regulations 2010. Under the old regulations, a number of terms were implied into, or required in, trust deeds. These included requirements to provide separate audit…