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vickiammundsen

vickiammundsen has written 710 posts for Matters of Trust

The high cost of obfuscation

Costs are an increasingly live issue in court proceedings.  The risk of a loss and the resultant costs is a valid, and important, consideration when contemplating proceedings.  When the proceedings relate to a trust, the matter is more complex due to the trustees’ right of indemnity from the trust fund.  However, given that whenever the … Continue reading

The minority can inherit the earth … sometimes

A little licence in the heading, maybe not the earth, but in some circumstances, an interest in trust at least. The rule in Saunders v Vautier allows the final beneficiaries of a trust to bring the trust to an end provided that all of the trustees are in agreement and are of age. The rule … Continue reading

Know thy beast

A constructive trust claim provides instructive reading into recognising what it is that you are after before you begin.  It begins, as is so often the case with trust cases, with a failed relationship.  There was a home owned and constructed by a trust that was settled well before the relationship began.  After the relationship ended … Continue reading

Providing trust assets does not ensure later control

It may seem somewhat trite law that once a trust is settled, the settor loses the right, by virtue of having made that settlement, to control the trustees.  To put this another way, just because you are the source of the trust’s assets, you cannot determine how these assets are utilised.  This fundamental proposition of trust … Continue reading

Going beneath the skin of the legal form

Marriage break ups are messy.  You don’t usually need to scratch much below the surface to find that out.  Who said what unbelievable thing.  Who did what unbelievable thing.  Who slept with a party outside of the union.  We’ve all seen it / read about it (maybe talked a bit more about it than we … Continue reading

Unanimity and avoidance of self-dealing – care required

The case of Dever v Knobloch is not especially new.  However, it is surprising how many times I have looked back to refer to it. The facts of the case are not particularly interesting – essentially no more than another family dispute where the existence of a discretionary trust does not forestall expectations of equal … Continue reading

Corporate trustee associated for GST purposes

When vendor and purchaser are associated companies the amount of secondhand goods credit that can be claimed is limited to the lesser of the: GST included in the original cost of the goods to the supplier [GST] tax fraction of the purchase price, and tax fraction of the open market value of the supply. The tests of … Continue reading

Indemnity upheld

Retiring trustees are commonly indemnified by the continuing trustees for costs that might arise in the future relating to the trusteeship. An example where resort might be made to such an indmenity is when a  retired trustee is later named in proceedings relating to the time of the trustee’s tenure. Where the indemnity is from the continuing trustees the indemnity … Continue reading

Freezing orders and trust property

A freezing order is not a solution to a problem, but rather acts in the nature of ensuring assets cannot be disposed of so that a future judgment might be of no value. Given the propensity of New Zealanders to have assets held in trusts, it is perhaps refreshing to be able to discuss a … Continue reading

Equity as a sword upholds ruse

The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court decision in Glover No 2 Limited v Glover Trust Limitd et ors  that a deed of bare trust that was entered into only to avoid a tax liability was a valid document and did not represent a sham. The deed of bare trust was entered into to … Continue reading

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