Maori Trustee joins Trustee Corporations Association of NZ Inc

30 June 2011

TCA is delighted to welcome the Māori Trustee as a new full member of the Trustee Corporations Association of New Zealand Inc (TCA), effective 1 June 2011.

The Māori Trustee manages or administers around 2,000 properties with about 105,000 hectares of Māori freehold land, some 130,000 client accounts and over $150 million in investments.

Membership of TCA is an important step.  It will help strengthen the importance of the role of the Corporate Trustee in New Zealand, and will provide the Māori Trustee with access to a wide range of expertise, including corporate trustee work, personal client services, tax and back-office services.

The Māori Trustee was established under the Māori Trustee Act 1953 as a corporation sole.  The Māori Trustee was separated from government under amendments to the legislation in 2009 and is independent in its functions and accountable directly to clients.  The Māori Trustee’s strategy is to become a sustainable and viable organisation, focused on providing relevant services to clients.

For TCA, having the Māori Trustee as a member will broaden its exposure to and involvement in a whole new range of Trust services.  Its staff has a unique understanding of the special character of Māori assets, including issues around the fragmentation of land and the challenges of multiple ownership, knowledge the TCA and its current members will benefit from.

The Māori Trustee’s membership is also beneficial for TCA, given the recent passage of the Securities Trustees and Statutory Supervisors Act through Parliament.  TCA members are currently working hard on preparing all the documentation required for licensing, with the new regime set to start on 1 October under the auspices of the Financial Markets Authority.