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In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I when Prince Hal finds the cowardly Falstaff pretending to be dead on the battlefield, the prince assumes he has been killed. After the prince leaves the stage, Falstaff rationalizes “The better part of Valour, is Discretion; in the which better part, I haue saued my life” (spelling and punctuation … Continue reading
Family trusts can generally run for up to 80 years. That puts quite an onus on the settlor to get it right. It also means that where beneficiaries are defined by reference to children and grandchildren there can be a significant number of beneficiaries over time. Jones & Ors as Trustees v Collings & Ors there … Continue reading
There are currently 27,322 registered charities in New Zealand with a combined reported annual income of $16,505 million. What is sometimes overlooked is all the people behind the scenes who make all this happen. Making sure that everyone who makes these things happen know their responsibilities and obligations is a significant undertaking. It has been reported … Continue reading
Beneficiaries of a trust – including a testamentary trust are entitled to information relating to the trust. In the Goodman v Campbell a minor beneficiary’s mother sought appointment as a litigation guardian following an executor’s refusal to provide information about the estate of which her minor son was the sole beneficiary. The trustee of the … Continue reading
When who stopped loving who first is lost to the antiquities of time, for modern lovers there is still the trust to keep them shackled together. And what a shackle, and what expense… Whittle v Whittle is another tale of love lost but the Trust, if not the trust, remaining. In this case the pesky … Continue reading
Principles are important. But who should fund them? When acting as a trustee, it is generally accepted that the trustee will be reimbursed by the trust for any costs incurred. However, it is important to appreciate that this principle has a caveat – the costs must be reasonably incurred. New Zealand Māori Council v Foulkes … Continue reading
A bare trust is a trust where the trustee’s only duties are to hold the trust property, take reasonable care of it; and transfer the property to or as directed by the trust’s beneficiary. The duties of a bare trustee are passive (unlike the “normal” position where trustees have positive duties to manage and exercise their … Continue reading
Some cases go on for ever. Long after reason leaves the building, there is a determination that eventually right will prevail. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes that doesn’t happen because the original perception of what was right was wrong. Sometimes it is because there simply isn’t proof of what it is believed to have happened. … Continue reading
The great tragedy of any will that omits children, or provides for a grossly disproportionate split, is the difficulty to assess the whys and hows of the matter when the who is dead. Matters can be further complicated when the sole recipient of their parent’s bounty is also the sole executor. Consider for example Estate … Continue reading
While “protectors” are not a common feature of New Zealand trusts, they are not entirely unheard of. A protector might be described as a hybrid of a trustee and an appointor. This is a fairly inelegant statement of the term, but hopefully it gets the idea across. The role of the protector developed in offshore jurisdictions … Continue reading
Matters of Trust 