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Trusts Act 2019

Trustees’ duties and information obligations - Trustees’ obligations to keep and give trust information - Documents to be kept by trustees

45: Trustee must keep core documents

You could also call this:

"Trustees must keep important papers about the trust, like who's in charge and how money is managed."

Illustration for Trusts Act 2019

You must keep certain documents if you are a trustee of a trust. These documents include the trust deed, any changes made to the trust, and records of the trust's property. You must also keep records of decisions you make as a trustee, contracts you enter into, and financial statements.

You need to keep documents about your appointment as a trustee, and any letters from the person who set up the trust. If you have taken over as a trustee from someone else, you must also keep any documents they had. This includes documents like the trust deed, records of trust property, and financial statements.

You should keep all these documents so you can administer the trust properly, as stated in paragraphs (a) to (i) of the Trusts Act 2019.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7382927.

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44: Court consideration of gross negligence, or

"When a court checks if a trustee was very careless, it looks at their actions and decisions to see if they were unreasonable."

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46: Keeping documents where there is more than 1 trustee, or

"What to do with trust documents when there's more than one person in charge"

Part 3Trustees’ duties and information obligations
Trustees’ obligations to keep and give trust information: Documents to be kept by trustees

45Trustee must keep core documents

  1. Each trustee of a trust must keep, so far as is reasonable, the following documents relating to the trust:

  2. the trust deed and any other document that contains terms of the trust:
    1. any variations made to the trust deed or trust:
      1. records of the trust property that identify the assets, liabilities, income, and expenses of the trust and that are appropriate to the value and complexity of the trust property:
        1. any records of trustee decisions made during the trustee's trusteeship:
          1. any written contracts entered into during that trustee's trusteeship:
            1. any accounting records and financial statements prepared during that trustee's trusteeship:
              1. documents of appointment, removal, and discharge of trustees (including any court orders appointing or removing trustees):
                1. any letter or memorandum of wishes from the settlor:
                  1. any other documents necessary for the administration of the trust:
                    1. any documents referred to in paragraphs (a) to (i) that were kept by a former trustee during that person’s trusteeship and passed on to the current trustee.