Trusts mostly come into public attention when rich-list couples battle over their vast fortunes after they separate and the media dines out on the details. Or when their role is exposed in some dodgy enterprise that involves wealthy overseas residents stashing assets and cash here under New Zealand’s light handed foreign trusts regime.
The long-running Clayton vs Clayton court saga that began in 2007 and went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2016 was watched closely for its implications for trust law and where it collided with the Property (Relationships) Act.
The dispute was between a divorced husband and wife, Mark and Melanie Clayton, who had been together for around 20 years before they separated and squabbled over
