MAJOR TRUST LAW CHANGES NZ

No doubt you've heard about the major trust law changes coming soon to NZ. What are they, and how will they affect you and your trust?

The main changes are:

• Trustees will now have some mandatory duties to fulfill
• Trustees must disclose certain information to all the beneficiaries - no more opacity!
• Trustees are being given more flexible powers
• It should become cheaper to setup and run a trust
•  You might be able to remove and appoint a trustee and not have to get the courts involved
• Trust lifespan will be up to 125 years

Now, you might already be doing this, but here are some more changes; the new law lists core documents that all trustees need to retain:

• deed of trust and any variations
• property owned by the trust
• records of decisions made
• accounting records and financial statements,
• records about appointments, removals and discharges of trustees. 

If you are a client of EpsomTax.com Limited, you already do this.* But if you don't have up-to-date financial statements for your trust, you will have a lot of work (and expense possibly) ahead of you (contact us for a quote on 099730706). That might be this lady's problem...?

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Anyway, another big big change for trustees is that you will need to tell the beneficiaries info such as:

• "Oh, by the way: You're a beneficiary of our trust." (Could be awkward)
• Who the trustees are and how to contact them
• Info about changes of trustees etc etc
• The beneficiary has a right to see the deed of trust and info about the trust! 

Yikes! So, some big changes coming. For a more detailed summary, please visit this page at Rainey Collins.^

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* See a link to our blog articles on this subject here
^ The information on this page has been kindly reproduced by permission of Rainey Collins. This does not constitute an endorsement of EpsomTax.com Limited by Rainey Collins. EpsomTax.com Limited cannot provide legal advice. Please contact Rainey Collins for more information on what this means for your trust.