The moral dimension of trusteeship arises in many contexts. The recent New Zealand court decisions concerning information obligations to beneficiaries, and the way this is dealt with in the new Trusts Bill, highlight the difficulty of judging what information is too much or too little to disclose. However, general principles on disclosure bypass the consideration … Continue reading
In Sandman v Giboney, Mr Sandman claims that a law firm knowingly assisted a breach of trust by taking will instructions and assisting in the preparation and subsequent administration of a will when the will-maker did not have sufficient capacity to make a will. The matter came before the court in an application for strike … Continue reading
Dr Love, was the Executive Chairman and a trustee of the Wellington Tenths Trust (the Trust). The Trust manages assets for the Maori people of the Wellington and Taranaki regions. The trustees of the Trust developed a “partnership” business model whereby the Trust retained ownership of Trust land, but that development was carried out by third party property developers. … Continue reading
The Trusts Bill was introduced to Parliament on 1 August 2017. The Bill follows the same format as the earlier draft but differs in a number of parts. The Trusts Bill comprises 168 sections and 5 schedules. The policy objectives of the Bill include the objective of providing “clear, simple, and accessible trust law”. The … Continue reading
The bare facts of Chang v Lee can be summarised as follows: Ms Lee purchases a property in Sunnynook Mr Chang (Ms Lee’s uncle) advances Ms Lee $275,000 of the $566,000 purchase price The advance was not a gift The terms of the loan advance were incomplete Mr Chang made the advance to Ms Lee on the … Continue reading
The Supreme Court decision in Clayton v Clayton changed the trust landscape. But how afraid should we be? Are all trusts vulnerable to Clayton-style challenge? Or just the ones that push the envelope? And, if the latter, how far can one push before there is a problem? A recent decision of Moore J has provided … Continue reading
As the 30 June 2017 deadline passed for the registration of foreign trusts with Inland Revenue under recent legislation following recommendations made by the Shewan Report, the unsurprising fact that fewer than 3000 of the more than 11,750 foreign trusts have formally registered has been seized on by politicians (and anyone else wanting to vent … Continue reading
The High Court decision in Broadbent v Ministry of Social Development, which is essentially a test case, considers whether income derived from gifted assets (sometimes referred to as notional income) can be taken into consideration for income assessment purposes. The general purpose of the Social Security Act 1964, which includes provisions relating to a wide range … Continue reading
Accordingly to Wikipedia the idiom, “The devil is in the detail” refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details, meaning that something might seem simple at a first look but will take more time and effort to complete than expected and derives from the earlier phrase, “God is in the detail” expressing … Continue reading
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
