Rainey Collins Lawyers

I want to change a trustee of my trust – that’s easy, right?

Thursday, 1 December, 2011 | Claire Coe

Ron and Andrea had a family trust, of which they and their friend were trustees.   Their friend wanted to retire as trustee so they prepared a trustee resolution themselves retiring him as trustee of the trust and thought that was all that needed to be done.

Years later when they went to sell the property owned by the Trust they needed to track down the trustee (who had moved… Continue reading

We have completed our last gift to our trust – what do we need to do now?

Tuesday, 1 November, 2011 | Claire Coe

Trevor and Jill set up a family trust five years ago and transferred their family home to it.  Since then they had been gifting $27,000 each per year to reduce the loan from them to the trust that arose from the transfer of the property to the trust.  After the abolition of gift duty in October, they gifted the whole amount remaining in one lump sum.  They presumed they had… Continue reading

Some warnings regarding the proposed changes to gifting rules for trusts…

Monday, 25 July, 2011 | Claire Coe

Stephen and Colleen had a family trust and had been completing an annual gifting programme through their lawyers for years.  This meant they each gifted $27,000 per year to their trust (the maximum permissible) reducing the original loan balance, to avoid gift duty being paid on the initial amount their house was transferred to the trust for.

Changes to gifting laws, although not yet finalised, are expected to come… Continue reading

Trusts – now is a prime time to protect yourself and your assets

Wednesday, 25 May, 2011 | Claire Coe

Derek owned a small shop in the suburbs of Wellington.  Earlier this year, he found himself unable to pay creditors and had to close his business.  He ended up being sued by creditors of the business who were able to claim part of the family home that he owned with his wife.  If only he had protected their assets with a Trust, this could have been avoided.

Reasons to… Continue reading

Rainey Collins associate to feature in documentary on trusts

Thursday, 28 April, 2011 | Ronette Druskovich

Rainey Collins Senior Associate Ronette Druskovich will be featuring as part of a radio documentary, “Insight on Family Trusts” , on Radio NZ this Sunday 1 May just after the 8am news, and again on Monday 2 May after the 9pm news. 

The documentary can also be heard on the internet at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight.  Ronette will be contributing her legal opinion on the creation of family trusts, and the… Continue reading

Family trusts

Monday, 17 January, 2011 | Claire Coe

The concept is simple:  you want to have direct ownership of less assets while still providing for family members and retaining the benefit of the assets.  A trust is a legal structure that separates you from ownership of your assets.  A primary reason why you may want to separate ownership is to protect yourself from claimants against your assets.

A trust has three parties:

• Settlor (starts the

Don’t risk your trust not working

Monday, 17 January, 2011 | Claire Coe

Trusts are for protecting property.  They do this very well but only if they are properly administered.  If you get into financial difficulties and have significant assets in your Trust, the first thing your creditors will do is to try to get their hands on those assets.

This means it is absolutely vital that your Trust cannot be accessed by anyone other than those for whom it was established… Continue reading

I want to change a trustee of trust – that’s easy, right?

Thursday, 23 December, 2010 | Claire Coe

Recently we encountered a situation in which some time ago, people with a Family Trust had tried to remove a trustee themselves simply by signing a resolution to that effect.

Years later when they sold the property owned by the Trust they needed to track down the trustee, who had moved overseas years before, because of course he was on the property title as the owner.  The… Continue reading

Family Protection and Asset Planning

Monday, 29 November, 2010 | Alan Knowsley

Rainey Collins Senior Solicitor, Fiona McGeorge, recently addressed  the 3rd Annual Trusts and Relationship Property Conference held in Wellington.  Fiona focussed  on Family Protection Claims and their impact on Asset Planning in New Zealand.  To cater for changing circumstances, most modern Wills are now created with enhanced flexibility, while still providing those making the will with maximum control.  Fiona was able to update attendees on the latest position… Continue reading

Blended Families and Parallel Trusts

Monday, 29 November, 2010 | Ronette Druskovich

Rainey Collins Senior Associate, Ronette Druskovich, recently addressed the 3rd Annual Trusts and Relationship Property Conference held in Wellington.  Ronette discussed the very important issue of Blended families and the use of Parallel Trusts.  As old relationships fail and new ones are formed it is important to protect a current spouse or partner against interests of children of a prior relationship and children of the current relationship.  It… Continue reading

Tuesday, 31 January, 2012

TV 1 Breakfast Show

Thursday, 26 January, 2012

Recent promotions announced at Rainey Collins Lawyers