New Zealand Legislation: Regulations

Explanatory note

This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.

These regulations, which come into force on 1 July 2009, revoke and replace the Maori Trust Office Regulations 1954 (the 1954 Regulations). However, regulations 3 to 5A of the 1954 Regulations have not been reviewed. They are carried forward, as described below. Regulations 7 to 10 of the 1954 Regulations have been superseded by new provisions, reflecting the new structure set up for the Māori Trustee by the Māori Trustee Amendment Act 2009.

The new provisions support the requirement for the Māori Trustee to act independently in managing the funds held in the Common Fund for the benefit of the beneficial owners of the funds.

The new provisions are concerned with certain aspects of the management of the Common Fund. They apply to the process of calculating and paying the distributable income into the accounts that comprise the Common Fund; they do not affect the process of making payments out of accounts in the Common Fund, paying funds into individual accounts, or other functions. The new provisions are—

• regulation 7, which provides for a reasonable management fee (plus goods and services tax, if any) to be charged by the Māori Trustee for activities relevant to the management of the funds held in the Common Fund and, to the extent that the Māori Trustee has charged a commission or fee in relation to such an activity, a management fee is not able to be charged in addition to any commission or other fee collected for the same activity:

• regulation 8, which requires distributable income for each account to be calculated monthly on the balance held in each account on the last day of the month:

• regulation 9, which provides for the apportionment of distributable income by requiring income to be paid into each account held in the Common Fund in the same proportion as each account contributes to that Fund; it also requires payments to be made on 1 April in each year, although it does not prevent payments being made at other times as well if the Māori Trustee considers that circumstances make that appropriate, for example, if an account holder wishes permanently to withdraw all the funds in the account at another time, the Māori Trustee may calculate and pay the distributable income relating to that account without waiting until 1 April; this regulation also provides transitionally for the first 9 months of operation after the Māori Trustee Amendment Act 2009 and these regulations come into force on 1 July 2009:

• regulation 10, which sets out certain disclosure requirements, the time by which a report on the payment must be made to the holder of each account in the Common Fund, the discretion of the Māori Trustee as to the delivery of the report, and the obligations on the Māori Trustee in relation to account holders who cannot be contacted.

The provisions of the 1954 Regulations that have not been reviewed are being carried forward without change as to their scope and content, but drafting changes have been made to update certain cross-references, simplify their presentation, and better reflect current drafting style. The regulations replicating the regulations retained from the 1954 Regulations are—

• regulation 3 (former regulation 3), which defines “estate”:

• regulation 4 and the Schedule (former regulation 4), which specify the matters for which the Māori Trustee may charge commission and the rate that applies in each case:

• regulations 5 and 6 (former regulations 5 and 5A), which set out the fees payable by or to the Māori Trustee in relation to specified matters.