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It is generally accepted that while beneficiaries are the recipients of trust assets at the trustees’ discretion, beneficiaries have relatively little in the way of enforceable rights. Beneficiaries can request trust information and can ask, but not compel, the trustees to distribute trust assets to them. It is not always appreciated that beneficiaries’ access to the … Continue reading
The transfer of a family home to a trust is a relatively routine occurrence. The general order of events is: settle trust execute agreement for sale and purchase carry out any gifting get bank consent register transfer What happens if the last step does not occur? Has the sale in fact been effected? Particularly in … Continue reading
Certainty as to object, that is, who the beneficiaries of a trust are is one of the three certainties required to evidence a valid trust. See Davis v White. However, what is the position where it is clear that a person or company or trust is a beneficiary – it is just that had the … Continue reading
The decision in Judd v Hawkes Bay Trustee Company Limited (see Another tributary in the trickle of constructive trust cases) has been upheld on appeal. By way of background Richard Hodgkinson and Michelle Judd were married for six and a half years. Over that period they lived in a property in Lane Road, Havelock North, … Continue reading
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The Panama Papers story is big by any measure and there is information a plenty. However, what is being said about New Zealand and suggestions of tax haven aspects to how trusts are taxed need to be considered alongside a good dose of … Continue reading
New Zealand’s tax treatment of trusts has made front page headlines this week due to its taxation treatment of foreign trusts. To quote the New Zealand Herald article on the “Panama Papers”: “New Zealand’s 12,000-plus offshore trusts pay no New Zealand tax on foreign earnings. Their beneficiaries are not registered and their accounts are not filed … Continue reading
Work Safe New Zealand.New Zealanders are reported to have more trusts per head of capita than anywhere in the world. Whether this is true or not cannot be verified as there is no register of New Zealand family trusts. The secrecy that surrounds trusts is one aspect of why they have remained so popular. While … Continue reading
When embarking on asset and estate planning, an important but often overlooked enquiry is as to how the next generation will manage the assets (and what those assets might be) and who sensibly should be in charge. Consider the case of Frickleton v Frickleton. In this case one of four sons ends up as the sole executor … Continue reading
Relationships end. Sometimes badly. Few amongst us can remember what we saw in the other. Usually we move on. Bruises are dusted. The property is divided up, each thinks the other got more than they should have. Some of us are made of stronger stuff. Relationship property assets under the control of a single party to the … Continue reading
The Court of Appeal decision in Erceg v Erceg has provided the Court of Appeal’s view of the correct approach to the disclosure of trust information to beneficiaries. Prior to this Court of Appeal decision in Erceg v Erceg it was settled law in New Zealand that beneficiaries had a rebuttable right to trust information pursuant to the … Continue reading
