Family Trusts
If you are serious about protecting your assets read on ...

You can take steps to protect your home and assets.

It doesn’t matter how well your will is written, or how much thought and planning has gone into your Matrimonial Property Agreement …..whatever you own can still be legally taken from you!

Frightening isn’t it? Just imagine, you’ve worked hard for many years and through hard work, careful planning, good luck, or a mixture of all three, you have managed to accumulate considerable assets. You expect that when you retire your savings will be there to look after you, and to look after your children when you’re gone. Did you know that despite your hard work and careful preparations it could all be at risk?

Consider these following sad stories…

Story 1
A middle aged couple had worked hard all their lives and had a substantial freehold family home, some life assurance and several investment properties. The husband became ill and needed long term rest-home care. In order to pay for his care his wife had to sell the much loved family home and was only able to keep $100,000 to purchase a replacement home. In addition all investment assets over the value of $40,000 were sold to pay for his care.

The Government was able to use asset testing to force these sales.

Story 2
A younger couple have also worked hard and accumulated a large home, two nice cars and a recreational boat. The husband dies and in his will he leaves everything to the wife. Some time later she re-marries, this marriage doesn’t work out but it does last 3 years. Despite the new husband having brought few assets of his own to the marriage, he is now entitled to claim 50% of most of the matrimonial property. Recent changes to the law (2001) will include de-facto relationships in this scenario.

The new Property (Relationships) Amendment Act 2001 can enable this to happen, unless people plan otherwise.

Story 3
A married couple decided to start their own business. They knew that if things went wrong their family home could be at risk. They decided to form a limited liability company in order to keep their business and personal activities separate. They believed this would protect their personal assets in the event of business problems, and in most cases that would be correct.

Due to inexperience they were unknowingly operating their business in what could be seen as a reckless manner. This means that despite having a limited liability company, as directors they could be personally liable, their personal assets were not protected. Things sadly went wrong with their business and they lost the family home in order to pay the company debts.

Creditors were able to utilise company law requirements to make claims against their personal assets.

These situations are obviously generalisations, but they do paint a reasonably accurate picture of how you could unwittingly be putting your home and assets at risk.

Is Protection Really Necessary?
You may be telling yourself that these examples are extreme, unusual and not likely to happen to you. You may even be wondering if any protection at all is necessary, after all don’t the courts and the government act fairly, won’t your will sort everything out? Your Will doesn’t sort everything out if one of those things is protecting your assets. The courts and government agencies may act fairly in the eye of the law, but people are not always treated equally.

Consider for a moment how our system works.
Let’s take a hypothetical couple, we’ll call them John and Mary. John and Mary are decent enough folk, but for one reason or another they haven’t been employed for a lot of the time, and as they got older they spent more and more time receiving a benefit of some kind. They are senior citizens now and their health is failing, and those in charge have decided that they both need full time rest-home care.

Due to their circumstances they don’t have enough money to pay for their care so who is going to pay for it?

Cost of care
It is going to cost each of them about $700.00 every week for their care. John and Mary don’t have any savings, and no family home that the Government can sell to help pay the costs. Unfortunately their family are in a similar position and they can’t help out either. So the Government pays the $700.00 per week. (In reality we all pay - we are all taxed in order to provide this kind of care for our ailing elderly population.)

Let’s take another hypothetical couple. We’ll call them Jack and Jill. Now Jack and Jill have worked really hard, they have accumulated a nice freehold family home with lots of nice things in it, they have a car each and a caravan to holiday in. They paid for their children to be educated through University and have helped put their grand-children through university as well.

Time has passed and Jack and Jill are now frail and elderly, they also need full time rest home care. Who is going to pay for it?

Sale of assets
They are of course. Their home and assets will be sold to pay for their care. When you say it quickly it sounds fair doesn’t it? Jack and Jill are the ones receiving the care so they should be the ones paying for it.

Let’s summarise, but first I would like to establish that the purpose here is to illustrate the inequalities in the law, it is not to apportion blame or fault to any individuals.

We have two couples, one who either was unable or unwilling to provide for themselves throughout life. And another who worked very hard providing for themselves and paying for the education of their children.

The first couple have no assets so they are looked after by the government when they become frail and elderly.

Hard work penalised
The second couple lose almost everything they worked for in order to pay for their care. In effect they are penalised for being self-sufficient and taking care of their own financial needs through-out their lives. They have provided for themselves while healthy, and now the Government says they must provide for themselves while ill.

Is this fair?
Over the years Jack and Jill have paid large sums of money in taxation, the Government has no difficulty spending this money on the care of the not so well off. But now that Jack and Jill need care they are told that all they worked for will be sold to pay for this care.

Inequitable Treatment
Obviously this is a very simplified example but it does illustrate the inequitable treatment that the law allows. The law also provides a way to avoid this inequality.

You have access to a legal tool that will minimise the chance of you losing what assets you already have, and what you may accumulate in the future.

It will help you to separate your personal and business activities and protect your assets in case of matrimonial or relationship problems. It will also help you to hold on to your hard won assets so that your later years aren’t spent in poverty.

So why allow the Government and others (creditors, ex-spouses, ne’er-do-well children, distant unliked relatives) to take what you have worked for if you don’t have to?


Family Trusts are the answer!!


What exactly is a Family Trust?
In order to understand what a trust is, it is useful to have an idea as to their origin. We see that human nature hasn’t changed. People with assets a1000 years ago faced similar problems to people with assets today.

Excerpt from New Zealand Master Trusts Guide
“Trusts and their forerunners, the ‘use’ have been in existence for almost 1,000 years. Examples have been found of land being conveyed to one man to be held by him on behalf of or ‘to the use of another’. From the early 13th century it became increasingly common in England for land to be conveyed by common law to persons who were directed to hold the land for the benefit of other persons (today called beneficiaries). The common law did not recognise any of the uses (i.e., the directions) of this early form of trust.

Sometimes the new owners (today called the trustees) kept the land for themselves. The common law treated the owners as the unfettered owners and completely disregarded the claims of those people who were intended to benefit from the arrangement. The Chancellor was increasingly called on to intervene and compel the person holding the land for others to carry out the directions given to them as to how they should deal with the land. Anyone failing to do so was in contempt of (what later became) the Court of Chancery and was liable to imprisonment.

The popularity of the ‘use’ or trust in medieval England was largely brought about by the land laws of the day. At common law a man could not convey land to himself or to his wife, and he could not leave land by will. On the death of any person who held land from his feudal lord, the adult heir would need to pay an amount to that feudal lord (and subsequent profits from the land) before he could claim his inheritance. This was the equivalent of modern-day estate duty combined with an income tax.

However, this tax could be avoided if the ‘owner’ conveyed the land to a third party, to the use of the ‘owner’ during his lifetime and then to the use of his heir.

With the growth of the merchant class in the cities, the ‘use’ also became a way for those in business to protect land from creditors. By the late fifteenth century this practice had become so popular that ‘the greater part of England was held in use’. Following the increase in commerce in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, trusts were used not only to hold land, but also for commercial purposes.

In New Zealand, trusts have enjoyed growing popularity in the past 50 years … this has been stimulated by a number of factors… With the reduction in the level at which estate or death duty took effect following the ‘Black Budget’ of 1958, many farmers and land owners sheltered their principal assets in family trusts…As businesses collapsed in the late 1980s and personal guarantees came home to roost, those who had had the forethought to place assets in trusts were grateful.”

John Brown, New Zealand Master Trusts Guide, CCH, Auckland 2000, pgs 1-2


Now that you have a snapshot of the beginnings of trusts I will try to capture the essential points of ‘what a trust is’ in as plain English as I can.

A family trust is not a legal entity in its own right but it is a concept that is recognised under our law. It is an institution in which assets have been placed under the control of a person (called a trustee) who must deal with the asset for the benefit of other people (the trustee may himself be one) called beneficiaries.

A family trust provides a buffer between you and third parties.

A family trust provides a flexible, confidential and user friendly structure in which to plan for, and protect your financial future.

You decide
Nothing is perfect, but a family trust provides the best method we know of to protect your assets. You decide what it is you want to achieve in regard to your current assets and any future assets. You decide how this will impact on your matrimonial situation, and you decide how you want your estate divided.

Once you have made these and other decisions, a strategy is devised to make your wishes happen and to minimise future risks to your wishes.

Establishing your family trust
A Family Trust has legal rights and obligations it is also enforceable in the courts, but it is not registered with any agency unlike a limited liability company. There is no legal requirement that you do so but it is prudent to leave a copy of your family trust documentation in a safe place. A family trust can be established through a variety of avenues.

A family trust is just one of the ‘tools’ that is used for estate planning (arranging your financial affairs for the future). A good estate plan includes wills and other tools which are all part of the Family Trust package. These will be discussed in detail later on.

Transfer of assets
In general terms a trust provides you with the ability to transfer the ownership of valuable assets to a separate legally recognised arrangement, (the trust) while the trustees (you can be one) retain control and the beneficiaries (you can be one) benefit from these assets. This transfer of assets to the family trust minimises the risk of attack by the Government, disgruntled ex-spouses and even some creditors.

If the families in the previous stories had transferred their assets to the protection of a family trust they would have been in a much stronger position. They would have had a very good chance of avoiding the loss of those assets.

To be valid a trust must meet certain requirements. These include:-

1. Who and What:
It must be clear what property the trust is holding and it must be clear who the beneficiaries are.

2. Following the rules:
You must follow the basic rules (these are the rules built around Acts of Parliament and court decisions that have already been established in relation to setting up Trusts). I will talk a little more about this later. It is not complicated.

3. Lifespan: A trust cannot run forever. Its lifespan is limited to the period specified in the trust deed (with a maximum of 80 years).

In a nutshell, a family trust enhances the chances that your assets will be there to provide for you throughout your life, and will still be there to leave to your loved ones.

Each Family Trust will be individual to the needs of the person(s) establishing it. This individuality is achieved by drawing up a trust deed with the appropriate clauses.

A trust deed is the legal document containing the rules for the running of your Family Trust.

Why have a Family Trust?
A family trust can be used quite legally to protect and preserve your assets. It may also have taxation advantages.

To understand the purpose of a family trust we need first to look at the areas in which a trust can provide benefits.

1. Asset Protection
Do you have any assets and do you want to hang on to them?
If you answered yes then you need to be thinking about how you are going to do that.

To help you make your decision consider the bigger picture. The elderly population in New Zealand is growing rapidly and predictions are that in 30 years older people will make up about 20% of the population. Currently the figure is about 14%. In addition, there will be less people in paid employment, in other words less people paying tax.

The Government has already made moves towards user pays in regards to long term health care. They are already under considerable pressure and with an increase in demand on health services, there will likely be increased demand on our tax dollar and on our assets.

Rather than owning assets personally a trust will provide better protection for your assets.

2. Personal Reasons
A trust can be used to keep the family assets strictly within that family. This means that the spouses of your children would have no claim to assets you had created and handed on to your children. You could also have greater control over those assets than if they were held by your children..

A trust can provide a safe method of distributing your estate with ease. It can also provide a safe place for your beneficiaries inheritances to be placed. It can protect assets from claims under the Property (Relationships) Amendment Act 2001, as well as claims by de facto partners. A trust is not registered anywhere and very few people will have access to the details. This feature is attractive to those wanting their activities kept confidential.

Especially for single people
For a person that is not presently in a personal relationship a trust is an effective tool for those wanting to keep their current or future assets separate from entanglement with future personal relationships. Any assets currently held could be protected within the structure of a trust. If in the future, should you enter into a personal relationship, you still have the option of creating another trust for your, let’s call them, ‘joint’ assets. In this way you are still able to have a ‘partnership’ for the creation of future assets. At the same time current assets are not exposed to any claim by your new partner in the relationship. Please contact us to discuss this in more detail.

3. Assets Testing
We are all getting older and in the future may need long term rest-home care, or something similar. The Government provides subsidies for this care based on your income and assets. The less you have the more they will pay.

The process of testing your assets to set the level of any subsidy you may get separates this ‘benefit’ from most others. Most benefit assessments test your income only. The inequalities of this situation are illustrated in the Jack and Jill example.

By placing your assets (timing is critical) within a trust they are, under current law, out of reach of assets testing. If the trust owns them, you do not, they are not ‘your asset’ and depending upon your circumstances, you can increase the chances of qualifying for a rest-home subsidy without having to pay your savings in rest-home costs.

4. Taxation
Estate duty or inheritance tax may be re-introduced in the future, so it would be wise to protect yourself now. In the past you would have been charged 40% on any assets over $450,000, and this could happen again. Trusts have been a useful way of avoiding estate duty in the past. Whether they could do so in the future would depend on the form of future legislation.

Trusts allow for income splitting (current law). For example if you had a business and it was owned by the trust you established, the trustees would be able to distribute the income to several members of your family, (as long as they were over the age of 16) rather than just to the person that did the work, (as in the case of a company). By using a Trust it is sometimes possible to take advantage of a beneficiaries’ lower tax rate.

There are many more advantages to be gained by establishing a family trust and we have only touched briefly on a few of them.

There are also many variations and complications that can occur. But by knowing what it is you want to achieve through the establishment of a trust, and by obeying trust law the entire process can be simplified and complications minimised.

How does it work?

How to establish a Family Trust:
The deed itself is established and signed, and a nominal amount (levy) $10.00 given to the trustees.

A trust is typified by having one person or more (Settlor/s) transfer ownership of assets to another person/s (Trustee/s) for them to hold on behalf of a third person/s (Beneficiaries).
Assets are then sold at prices equal to market values to the trustees and the debt owing for the assets is then forgiven over a period of time.

The law only allows for $27,000 worth of assets to be gifted in forgiveness per year, per person into a Family Trust free of gift duty. Gifts in excess of this incur gift duty on a graduated scale. It may therefore take quite a number of years before the debt left owing for an asset has been forgiven. This means that the sooner you start the sooner your assets will be safe.

The Settlor
The person setting up or forming the family trust is called the Settlor. This will typically be the person who owns the property that will be transferred into the trust. It is the Settlor who sets out in the trust deed who will be responsible for the property (trustees) and who will be eligible to receive any benefit from the trust (beneficiaries).

It may be that you as Settlor will only set up the trust, and have no further involvement. Or it may be that you are Settlor, Trustee and a Beneficiary. Each trust is individual and the Settlors’ role will be outlined in your Family Trust Deed.

The Settlor must:

· Have a Trust Deed drawn up which:
- names the Settlor, the Trustees, and the Beneficiaries.
- outlines the duties and obligations of the trustees.
- outlines how the trust is run, investments it may make etc.


· Display proper intent by:
- having a genuine purpose for your trust (Property held in trust).
- seeking practical guidance on trust law.
- seeking practical guidance on the duties of trustees.

· Ensure there is a fiduciary duty to someone who isn’t a trustee by:
- naming a beneficiary that is not a settlor
- the trust will need to have more than one beneficiary if the settlor is also a beneficiary.
- NB Fiduciary – This is a term applied by the courts (long ago) to those who held positions of trust and confidence and is at the heart of the relationship between the trustee and the beneficiary.

· Transfer assets into the trust by:
- (in the first instance) giving an asset (say $10) to the trustees to look after for the beneficiaries
- further transfer of assets

Family Trust Deed
A family trust deed is a legal document which outlines the rules for the running of the family trust. There are many clauses which provide for individuality and flexibility within each family trust.

Essentially you decide (in consultation with your trust advisor) what it is you want to achieve by establishing a Family Trust, and who you want as trustees and beneficiaries. The Family Trust Deed describes in detail when, how and by whom this will be done.

The deed should also record the trustees powers. These powers are far reaching and can allow the trustee to do almost anything they deem prudent with the trusts’ funds. The deed needs to allow for the trustees to make alterations and it is important to maintain flexibility in case of future changes to the law or to your wishes. The Trustee Act 1956, gives certain powers, these can be greatly extended by a flexible trust deed.

Another important aspect is that a deed establishes the discretionary power of the trust. Most family trust deeds are discretionary, what this means is that the trustees, decide at their discretion who will receive the trust income and for how long and who will receive the trust capital and when. Payments of capital or income are made to the beneficiaries at the absolute discretion of the trustees.

This means that beneficiaries cannot demand that the trustees pay them anything. They have only a right to be considered by the trustees.

Trustees
The trustees (you can be one) are the people who own and control the assets that you have placed in the family trust. As trustees of the family trust they now have legal ownership of the property, but they must act in the interests of the beneficiaries.

Trustees are responsible for making sure that the family trust deed is followed. This is why many Family Trusts have the Settlor (usually you) appointed as a trustee. You then have a measure of control over your own family trust in consultation with the other Trustees.

You may decide that you and your spouse will be the only trustees of your family trust. You can if you wish, appoint independent trustees. This would obviously require a great deal of thought and care as you are placing your assets in the control of someone else. The independent trustee may be someone you know or they may be a lawyer, accountant or someone who specialises in the area of trusts. Or you may decide to have several trustees, maybe you, your spouse and an independent person.

It is worthwhile to consider the benefit of having an independent professional trustee. By appointing a competent professional as a trustee you can increase the chances that all the trustees comply with the trust deed and with the law.

The difficulty arises in choosing the right person, they would need to have a good knowledge of running trusts as well as knowledge of your goals and desires in regard to the trust.

On a more practical level they would need to be at least as available as the other trustees, as all trustees must be consulted before any decisions are made. They are also obliged to sign minutes outlining trustees decisions. There must be no evidence of ‘rubber stamping’ of decisions once they have been made as this can place the credibility of your trust in doubt.

Another matter to consider is the charges that a professional trustee makes. These charges vary depending on the amount of property and level of transactions involved. It could be minimal or very expensive.

While opinions differ on the benefits or otherwise of having independent trustees one thing is clear…

...there is no legal requirement that you must have independent trustees at the present time.

To re-cap, when your trust does have more than one trustee there are some ‘rules’ relating to this that you must follow. This is particularly relevant in the case of independent trustees.

In practical terms if you, your spouse and a third person (a close family friend, an adult son or daughter, or a professional) are the trustees of the family trust you must all be consulted before making any decisions in regard to the trust. For example if you were purchasing investment property for the trust, each trustee must be consulted before any decisions were made. Obviously this can create some practical problems.

Trustees must ensure that all trustees take part in all decisions.

As you can see there is a lot flexibility in how you arrange your trustees. However, if you do decide for example to appoint yourself and your spouse, you will need to appoint further trustees to carry out your wishes after your death. Obviously you can each appoint the other, but you need to make provisions for when you are both gone.

There is no specified number of trustees that the trust can or can’t have; it may have as few as one and practicalities generally dictate the upper limit. The important thing to remember is that a sole trustee cannot be the sole beneficiary; i.e. there must be other beneficiaries for the trust to be valid.

While the law allows for you to be the Settlor ( you transfer the assets ), the Trustee ( you control the assets) and a beneficiary (you have the benefit of the assets), you must ensure certain criteria are met in order to have your trust recognised as valid.

· It must be clear who the beneficiaries are.
· It must be clear what property is held in trust.
· If you are the trustee you must not be the sole beneficiary.
· You must run the trust according to the trust deed and the law.

PLEASE NOTE: The IRD has recently published a series of draft rulings for public comment regarding the situation where a family home is transferred to Trust ownership. If these drafts become formal rulings you will need to take tax advice from your Accountant/Solicitor/Tax Advisor before the transfer (sale) of your residence to a Family Trust and it is intended that you continue to live in the family home.

Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries are the people that you wish to benefit from assets in the family trust. The beneficiaries that are specifically named in the trust deed are deemed to be the ‘primary beneficiaries’. For taxation requirements primary beneficiaries should not include any company. Tax exempt charities are allowed to be primary beneficiaries.

At the establishment of the Trust the settlor elects who they wish to benefit from the Trust. Beneficiaries named at this point are usually the settlors spouse/partner, close blood relatives and close friends, in other words people for whom the settlor has ’natural love and affection’. The term ‘natural love and affection’ is used in trust and IRD jargon to identify those people who can benefit from the Trust.

The Trust Deed may allow for more beneficiaries to be added later. For example, you may wish to add a particular individual or you may provide that new beneficiaries be added when they come into existence. This may be in the case of a new grandchild being born, the trust could provide that the grand child would automatically become a beneficiary.

The intention is to provide trustees with maximum flexibility in deciding who should benefit from the trust. However the beneficiaries have limited rights to force the trustees to make payments to them. All benefits should be at the discretion of the trustees.


Advantages you’ll gain by having your own well organised Family Trust.

* Peace of mind - Your assets are safe!


* Control - You decide who the trustees are.

- You decide who benefits and when.

- As a trustee you have considerable control.


* Flexibility - You can change things in the future.

- You can place conditions on benefits.

- You can adapt the trust if legislation changes.


* Freedom - You no longer own the assets.

- You will not be taxed on things you don’t own.

- You are less likely to be asset tested on trust property.

- You are less likely to be income tested on income from trust owned assets.


* Safety - Ex-spouses won’t have access to trust assets (though the Courts are able to make orders as to trust income).

- Some creditors won’t have access.

- Trust assets have protection from your financial difficulties.

- Insulation from future Matrimonial Property settlements.

You now have access to an extremely comprehensive estate planning product.
One which has been designed to make the operation of a Family Trust simple and user friendly.


So what do you get?


You Get (In the Company Net Limited Family Trust Package):

The following documents are prepared for you in user friendly English as much as possible. Your operation manual will guide you through these documents and outline your responsibilities for the next year.

·New Wills
·Power Of Attorney Documents
·Deeds Of Acknowledgment of Debt
·Deeds Of Forgiveness of Debt
·Sale and Purchase Agreements for properties sold to the Trust
·Memorandum of Wishes Template (hard copy & on disk)
·Trust Deed
·Opening Minutes
·Future Minutes Template (hard copy & on disk)
·New Zealand Master Trusts Guide (by John Brown)
·The Plain English Guide to Family Trusts in NZ (by Sue & Kurt Girdler)
·Both these books have a combined value of $89.90

Additional Conveyancing Service
In order to provide you with a convenient and hassle free ‘one stop’ service our supervising legal firm, E.W. Gartrell, is pleased to offer a full conveyancing program. If you are interested in taking advantage of this service please contact us.

For each Settlor we prepare the following documents:

New Wills
Essentially your Will determines how you want the assets held outside of your Trust distributed. This document contains provision for you to distribute heirloom type items (Granddad’s watch or Mother’s wedding ring). More importantly it serves to ensure that any assets not yet transferred to the family trust are bequeathed to the family trust. This allows management of all your assets within one entity.

Enduring Powers of Attorney for Property & Welfare
An Enduring Power of Attorney is when you give the legal authority to someone else to manage your affairs if you become mentally incapacitated due to age or illness or accident. Ideally the nominated attorney should be a trustee of your trust.

Two documents will be prepared for each settlor, one relating to your property, and one relating to your personal welfare. You can revoke these powers of attorney at any time, as long as you are mentally capable.

Deed of Acknowledgment of Debt
This is the document that records the value of all assets sold (transferred) to the trust. It acknowledges that the trust owes a debt to you for assets you have sold to the trust.

Deed of Forgiveness of Debt
This document records the forgiveness on behalf of each Settlor of up to $27,000 of the debt acknowledged above (it doesn’t need to be paid back). This process is repeated annually until all assets have been gifted to the trust. (This is explained in greater detail in your Plain English Trust Guide)


Further Documents Prepared for the Trust:

A Memorandum of Wishes
This document records how you wish either present or future trustees to distribute your assets.

The Memorandum of Wishes can be changed by you at any time without professional assistance as long as you make it clear and easily understood. You can change it as often as your wishes change. While the trustees may have regard to the memorandum of wishes they should not be bound by it.

This document will be supplied on computer disk to make your editing of it more convenient.

The Trust Deed
A Family Trust Deed is a legal document which outlines the rules for the running of the Family Trust. There are many clauses which provide for individuality and flexibility within each family trust.

The deed also records the trustees powers. These powers are far reaching and can allow the trustee to do almost anything they deem prudent with the trusts funds. Your trust deed will also record the names of the Trust’s beneficiaries.

Opening Trust Minutes
You are supplied with all necessary resolutions for your Trust’s first meeting of trustees. These resolutions take care of the initial matters and get you under way.

Sale and Purchase Agreements for each property sold to the Trust
Included in our Trust Package is the preparation of a Sale and Purchase Agreement for each property to be sold to the Trust.

Future Trust Minutes
You are supplied with draft minutes to assist you to deal with all commonly experienced events in the course of operating the Trust. These are also supplied on computer disk to make your editing of minutes more convenient.

New Zealand Master Trusts Guide By John Brown
John Brown is a non-practising Barrister and Solicitor who specialises in consultancy advice in the areas of trusts, asset planning and business life insurance. The New Zealand Master Trusts Guide examines the concept of trusts, their role in society and the new wave of trust-busting litigation. An essential read for anyone involved in or interested in trusts, the guide clarifies what exactly a trust is and the roles and responsibilities of the parties to a trust.

The guide includes a clause-by-clause analysis of a family trust deed to enable those with trusts to cut through the jargon and understand what the document really means. For anyone thinking of either setting up or running a family, trading or charitable trust or who stands to benefit under a trust, this guide is indispensable. Compiled to appeal to all people interested in trust issues, the guide takes readers to the next level of information, offering practical tools regarding trusts in New Zealand.

The Plain English Guide to Family Trusts in NZ
This guide has been written in an effort to make the operation of the Family Trust as straightforward and user-friendly as possible.

It contains plain English, practical guidance on a wide range of subjects relevant to the trouble free operation of the Family Trust.

The Plain English Guide to Family Trusts in NZ will guide you through all aspects of your estate plan and outline your responsibilities as Trustees. A schedule of required activities for the next year will also be included.

For a Family Trust order form, please phone us on 0800938801 or go to the contact us page and send us an e-mail with the Family Trust order form in the subject line.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This document only provides a summary of the law surrounding Trusts in New Zealand. It is not intended to be comprehensive or to provide legal or accounting advice. Do not act in reliance on any statement without first obtaining specific professional advice. The publisher, authors, editors, and consultants expressly disclaim liability and responsibility to any reader or purchaser of this publication for the results of any actions taken on the basis of the information contained herein.