The Government has advised that new legislation will shortly be introduced to remove the Crown guarantee of the Public Trust. The reasoning given is that this is in line with government policy for the last several decades that Crown-owned commercial businesses should not have a competitive advantage through being Crown-owned. Public Trust currently has an AA credit … Continue reading
The use of corporate trustees is a common response to trustee liability. However, where one of two natural person trustees retires and a corporate trustee is appointed, it is important to consider whether the retiring trustee has been discharged. See ss 43, 45 and 46 of the Trustee Act 1956, which provide: Relevant Legislation 43 Power … Continue reading
Worried about all the ways your decision to accept appointment as a trustee will come back and bite you? CCH Learning – Trustee Series 2017 Webinar Trustee Liability might be just the thing that you need to help you sleep at night.
When a trustee retires, it is necessary to transfer the trust’s assets from the trustees (including the retiring trustee) to the continuing and any new trustee. Where a trustee is removed in contentious circumstances the trustee may be unwilling to assist in the transfer of trust property. Sometimes with good reason – for example where … Continue reading
The expression “One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy” is attributed to Aristotle (384 – 322 BC). This proverb is perhaps apposite in the case of D v T. D (age 72) and T (age 59) … Continue reading
Expectations, great or otherwise are tricky to enforce. When a person who had expectations in respect of an estate is disappointed there are various options for challenge open to the disappointed party. However, each has thresholds that need to be satisfied. Consider the case of Blumenthal v Stewart. Mr Blumenthal was the son of Mr … Continue reading
If you are wondering where the Trusts Bill is at, well you are not alone. The simple answer is, not here yet. However, incremental progress is being made. The Law Society recently reported back addressing some points that Ministry of Justice sought clarification on. These related to the maximum duration of a trust, application of … Continue reading
Feeling overwhelmed by the amount of new trust case law? Help is at hand. Vicki Ammundsen and John Brown are presenting a webinar on critical trust cases for 2017. For more information see Webinar Series 2017 – Critical Trust Cases. Cases covered include: Marshall Family Trust and Godfrey v McCormick – critical analysis of whether … Continue reading
The informality associated with loans between family members can lead to later disputes when different interpretations of the transaction emerge. Warin v Warin is a case in point. In that case $367,903.90 was advanced to the Warins’ daughter. The loan comprised: $100,000 that was initially secured by mortgage in 1997 $141,749.70 that was loaned to … Continue reading
“The last of the Memoranda shows that Mr White Senior wished each of his three children to enjoy the benefit of his estate equally and that the property be sold to one of his three children. We will return to the words of the Memoranda in due course.” Thus starts the Court of Appeal decision … Continue reading
