Trusts

The High Court has recently given a salutary reminder to Trustees of their obligations to promptly report and inform beneficiaries for specific trusts of the financial information relating to the Trusts affairs. In this case the applicants’ children were residual beneficiaries in an estate where there was a life interest […] Read More›

The Law Commission is currently undertaking a review of trust law and has produced a Report, which recommends that a new Trust Act be introduced.  The recommendation is that the new Act would replace the current Trustees Act 1956 and address a number of areas which the Law Commission believes […] Read More›

It is becoming increasingly common for New Zealanders to leave the country indefinitely.  Many of those people have established Trusts while here in New Zealand and choose to leave in place their family Trust owning various assets, including property. For the majority of Trusts tax treatment of income and distributions […] Read More›

The Court of Appeal has now confirmed the High Court’s position that only $27,000.00 per annum is allowed for the rest home subsidy exemption. Historically most trusts have had couples gift $54,000.00 per annum based not only on professional legal advice but also on the Ministry of Social Development’s own […] Read More›