New story here.

Top NZ lawyer closed his family trust and others should follow suit

I am not a lawyer so correct me if I am mistaken.

A friend of mine has a prenup also called a contracting out agreement and a family trust which both have failed.

There is an abundance of newer case law that now says you can not use a trust to protect yourself against a gold digger. They use words like diversion of matrimonial income, the prenup circumstances have now changed, it was so long ago. There is now children, even if they were not yours and the gold digger can remain in the house and you the settler of the trust has to leave. And if you don’t we will put a protection order against you as you have to leave.

There is a new Trust law that is due to come out that will catch up with case law and it will include making running a trust more expensive and time consuming. However in the mean time case law is in play and has now effectively finished off just about all of the protection a family trust had.

Any ideas on how to protect your stuff?

Maybe no partner, girlfriend beyond 6 months? Or not at all. Maybe owned by a company in the Cayman islands. Maybe live in Australia or some other place that does not step on property owners rights.