The High Court, in Broadbent v The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development [2017] NZHC 1499 (a test case), has told the Ministry of Social Development that it is not correctly applying the means testing assessment for income when determining someone's eligibility for a residential-care subsidy. Read more
It is common knowledge that when a married couple in New Zealand gets divorced, they, general speaking, get half each of all the property owned by the parties. In New Zealand this asset division also extends to de facto relationships of more than three years, but what is a de facto relationship? A marriage is easy to identify: there is a wedding, someone cuts the cake, there is usually an adorable child in charge of the rings and most importantly, a legal document; a marriage certificate which says you are married. However, de facto relationships are not so easy to identify. Read more
A new Trusts Bill has recently been released for public consultation. This bill updates and changes various aspects of trust law. One interesting proposed change is the rights beneficiaries have to trust information. The most recent judicial case involving beneficiaries and trust information is Erceg v Erceg [2017] NZSC 28. The Supreme Court did not find that there was a presumption for or against disclosure of trust documents, but that there is an "expectation that basic trust information will be disclosed to a close beneficiary who wants it". The Supreme Court's analysis did differ from the lower Courts. The Supreme Court listed certain factors to take into consideration when courts receive a request for disclosure. They are: Read more
What happens if your relationship ends and your spouse/partner has previously settled property in a trust? If the trust is valid, and there have been no dispositions to which the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 applies, there are two ways you may make a claim against that property. Read more
"Trust busting" is the term given to an attempt made to penetrate a Trust structure and have assets held by the Trust declared by the Courts to be owned personally by an individual. The implication of Trust assets being found to be owned personally is that these assets then become part of an individual's net worth and are an available "property pool" to former spouses/partners or creditors with valid claims against the individual. Read more
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