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Relationship property agreements and trusts are poor bedfellows at the best of times. While trusts are a common feature of many couples’ asset and estate planning activities, assets owned by a trust are not relationship property. Although the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (the Act) can have application to trusts, the provisions that allow parties to contract … Continue reading
The thorny subject of the informality that can occur with family arrangements involving loans and trusts and the resultant lack of accord when relationships sour is not new. See Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a loan? The issue has arrisen again in the context of a statutory demand issued by the purported … Continue reading
Vanity Fair is an unlikely source of interest for people whose minds turn more often to trusts than trust fund babes. However, a line in Vanity Fair’s recent interview with Ned Lambton, the seventh Earl of Durham, after whose ancestor Wellington’s Lambton Quay was named (the first New Zealand connection), warrants further consideration. Discussing his … Continue reading
Trustees are personally liable to meet trust debts. However, difficulties can arise when a trustee has concerns regarding the bona fides of creditors. This issue was considered by the Court in Public Trust v Conway Madison Group Limited (In Liquidation). Background The Public Trust was appointed as a trustee of the Madison Family Trust (the Trust). Following … Continue reading
In December 2010 the High Court granted interim asset preservation orders in respect of assets owned by the trustees of the KA3 and KA4 Trusts and former Hanover director Mark Hotchin. The trustees of the KA3 and KA4 trusts challenged the High Court’s refusal to strike out certain aspects of the Financial Market’s Authority (FMA) claim, … Continue reading
The recent High Court decision in Stokes Family Trust v RM Colebrook Family Trust should ring alarm bells for anyone who routinely makes purchases on an “or nominee” basis and then nominates the same trustee purchaser as to do so could invoke the doctrine of undisclosed principal. Background The facts of the case can be … Continue reading
Protectors, although perhaps not a common feature in discretionary trusts, pepper the trust landscape. What is a protector? There is no agreed definition of protector. As a general principle a protector is a person who, although not usually a trustee, has been granted certain powers relating to the trust. These powers range from powers to veto trustee decisions, to powers to … Continue reading
The appointment as trustee involves significant responsibility and, in some circumstances, it is inthe best interests of the beneficiaries for a trustee or trustees to be removed. Most commonly a trustee will retire or can be removed pursuant to a power of removal where animosity or other concerns may cloud judgment. However, in some circumstances, … Continue reading
The regulatory statement to the Budget 2012 amendments to the residential care subsidy thresholds (now CPI adjusted rather than increasing at $10,000 per annum) makes interesting reading reading. Accepted that interesting might overstate the matter for many. Regardless, the statement does throw up some numbers that add some flesh to the bones. For example, of the … Continue reading
The devil, it is said, is in the detail. While there is no agreement regarding who this statement should be attributed to, this makes it no less correct. It also makes it no less relevant in the context of trusts, where so often what matters, is not what was intended (certainty of intention aside …) … Continue reading
Matters of Trust 