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Trusts Act 2019

Court powers and dispute resolution

139: Court may order payment of remuneration to trustee

You could also call this:

"The court can pay you for being a good trustee if it's fair."

Illustration for Trusts Act 2019

The court can order that you get paid for being a trustee if it thinks it is fair. You must have done a good job and the court will look at things like how hard your job was and how well you did it. The court will also think about how much time you spent on the job and how much the trust is worth.

The court has to consider many things when deciding how much you should get paid, including what you have already been paid and what risks you took as a trustee. It will also look at your skills and how successful you were in managing the trust. If the court thinks you did not do a good job, it might not give you as much money as it would have otherwise.

If there are many trustees, the court can decide how to split the payment among you. This means the court can say who gets what amount of money, and it will try to be fair when making this decision. You can read more about this in section 37 to understand the rules about getting paid for being a trustee.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7383066.

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Part 7Court powers and dispute resolution

139Court may order payment of remuneration to trustee

  1. Despite section 37 (duty to act for no reward), the court may order that reasonable remuneration be paid out of the trust property to a person who is or has been a trustee of the trust if the court is satisfied that it is just and reasonable to do so.

  2. In determining under subsection (1) what remuneration is reasonable, the court must consider the following:

  3. the total amount that has already been paid to any trustee of the trust:
    1. the number and difficulty of the services provided by the trustee:
      1. the liabilities to which the trustee is or has been exposed, and the responsibilities imposed on the trustee:
        1. the skill and success of the trustee in administering the trust:
          1. the value of the trust property:
            1. the time and services reasonably required of the trustee:
              1. whether any payment that might otherwise have been allowed or ordered should be refused or reduced due to the conduct of the trustee in the administration of the trust:
                1. any other circumstances that the court considers relevant.

                  1. If there are 2 or more persons who are or have been trustees, an order may specify whether and how the commission is to be apportioned among the trustees.

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