What An Auckland Family Trust Lawyer Does

If you are thinking about setting up a family trust, you need to work with an Auckland family trust lawyer.  There are many reasons why you will want a family trust, but creating one yourself is not recommended.  Before you hire a family trust lawyer, you need to know what they are going to be doing.

Creating The Family Trust

The primary task completed by the Auckland family trust lawyer will be the creation of the trust.  When a trust is created, the legal wording has to be precise.  If the wording is not precise, the trust can be open to interpretation and it can be disputed.

Any lawyer that specialises in creating trusts will understand the wording that is required.  They will also know the exact documents which are required for the creation of the trust.

Acting As A Trustee

When you create a family trust, you will need to appoint trustees.  While it is recommended that you have 2 family members or friends acting as trustees, you can also appoint a law firm.  This should only be considered if you do not have anyone you trust to be a trustee.

It is important to note that you cannot generally appoint an individual lawyer as your trustee.  Instead, you will be appointing the law firm.  This is something that you need to consider because the lawyers in the firm will change over time.  The lawyer that you have dealt with to create the trust may not be the one handling the trustee decisions.

Transferring Property Into The Trust

Your family trust lawyer will also oversee the transferring of property and other assets into the trust.  When it comes to transferring property into your trust, the correct transfer documents will need to be created.  It is possible to have these documents created by an estate agent, but you need to have the trust lawyer check this.

If there are other assets being transferred into the trust, your lawyer will be able to handle the legal side of this.  Some of the assets that you can transfer into the trust include money, family heirlooms, and stocks or other types of securities.  The transfer documents for these assets may vary and need to have the proper legal wording.

Handling Any Disputes

If there are any disputes regarding the family trust, your family trust lawyer will be able to help.  They will provide you representation in the event of a lawsuit against the trust or the trustees.  The lawyer will represent the interests of the trust and the basis of the trust creation.

The disputes that could arise will generally relate to the terms and conditions of the trust.  A beneficiary could contest some of the conditions that need to be fulfilled for them to receive a property from the trust.  This is one of the reasons why the wording of the initial trust documents is so important.

Hiring an Auckland family trust lawyer is important because of the many tasks that they take on.  They will not only create the trust documents, but they can also act as a trustee and represent the trust in any disputes.

If you are considering hiring an Auckland family trust lawyer, try McVeagh Fleming. They have a team of specialist trust lawyers who can help with all aspects of a family trust in New Zealand.