Introduction
New Zealand has a very large number of "domestic" trust.
1 Putting into trusts things like "family homes", holiday homes, business shares, and investments which would otherwise be Relationship Property is very common.
Unfortunately, a trust can mean problems for a party wanting to enforce their rights after a relationship break down. To see why this is we'll look at some key trust concepts and then look at some of the problems. Then we'll move on to talk about some specific points on doing a settlement deal involving a trust.
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1Last estimate we heard was 320,000. Another figure we heard was that one in five New Zealanders was somehow involved with a trust as settlor, trustee, or beneficiary.