Join leading estate and trust experts for this full-day online conference examining the key challenges in modern estate planning and disputes. Focus on practical strategies for drafting complex wills, managing capacity issues, and protecting assets through trusts and relationship property structures. Examine dispute resolutions from family claims and testamentary promises to executor conflicts — offering clear, practical insights grounded in recent case law and everyday practice. Ideal for practitioners wanting to sharpen their drafting, advisory, and litigation skills in this evolving area of law.

Presenters

Hugh Magee, Senior Associate, Jackson Russell
Hugh is a Senior Associate in Jackson Russell’s Private Client and Trusts team. He has more than 12 years’ experience as a lawyer, and specialises in succession planning and asset protection. Hugh advises clients on trust law, wills, estates and relationship property law. Hugh works with families, professional trustees, and charitable organisations to help preserve wealth and ensure peace of mind through careful planning. He advises on all aspects of a trust’s lifecycle, from establishment to administration, restructuring, and winding up. In the relationship property space, Hugh assists with contracting out agreements and resolving potential challenges. His expertise in will drafting ensures his clients are in safe hands. Hugh has a background in tax law, which provides an additional layer of insight, ensuring clients’ arrangements are tax-efficient.


Alison Gilbert, Partner, Brookfields Lawyers
Alison Gilbert leads Brookfields Lawyers’ Private Client team. She provides specialist legal advice on estate planning, estate administration, the establishment and management of trusts (both private and charitable) and related asset-management structures, relationship property and incapacity law. Alison is on the committee of the New Zealand branch of STEP, and on the editorial board of the STEP TQR, and is ranked in Chambers & Partners High Net Worth Guide and is also the lead author of LexisNexis’ Succession Practical Guidelines.


Prajna Moodley, Partner, Brookfields Lawyers
Prajna advises and represents clients in a wide range of disputes. Prajna’s clients include individuals, corporates, local authorities, insurance companies, trusts & trustees, incorporated societies and charitable organisations. Prajna’s experience incorporates the breadth of civil claims including commercial, property, relationship property, trusts & estates, and associated areas. Prajna appears primarily in the High Court, regularly in the District and Family Courts, in the Court of Appeal on numerous occasions and the Supreme Court. Prajna is particularly experienced and skilled in negotiating settlement of disputes prior to Court hearings, including via mediation, on terms favourable to his clients. Prajna regularly presents seminars on legal issues and practise to professional bodies. Prajna authors LexisNexis: Practical Guidance modules, including claims against estates and contested proceedings.

Michael Gorton, Senior Associate, TGT Legal
Mike is a solicitor qualified in England & Wales. He joined TGT Legal after relocating from London where he worked for several international law firms, having qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2016. He advised trustees of large superannuation schemes in relation to all aspects of trusts law and UK pensions law, including trustee duties and obligations in the context of high value transactions and investments. In New Zealand, he advises private clients in relation to trust establishment and administration, estate planning and relationship property whilst continuing to advise trustees of superannuation schemes


Natasha Williams, Senior Associate, Brookfields Lawyers
Natasha has extensive experience in trust law, advising family members on family protection claims, dealing with relationship property disputes and elder law. Natasha provides specialised legal advice to individuals, families and trustee companies on all aspects of trust formations and variations, trust wind ups and resettlements, trustees’ compliance with duties and obligations under the Trusts Act 2019. She provides advice to property and welfare attorneys and on estate administration matters. Natasha is on the committee for the Family Court Association Auckland (FCAA), a member of the Estate and Taxation Planning Council (ETPC) and serves on the Board of Trustees at her local school.

Vicki Ammundsen, Director and Notary Public, Vicki Ammundsen Trust Law
Vicki is the director at Vicki Ammundsen Trust Law Limited, which she established in 2015. Vicki is also the author of a number of books on trusts and trustees including Taxation of Trusts, ed 5, Trustee Liability, ed 2 and the Trustee’s Handbook, ed 5 (all published by Wolters Kluwer). She has presented at conferences in New Zealand and internationally on trust-related topics. Vicki also writes the blog Matters of Trust, which is a valuable trust and estate law resource. Vicki uses her day-to-day experience with trusts and estates and her deep knowledge of relevant case law to underpin her practical, solutions-focussed approach to dealing with a range of matters touching on trusts and estates. She firmly believes that trusts have an important role to play in inter-generational asset management, but that this is risked by a lack of understanding of effective or appropriate trust management that too often leads to misunderstanding or abuse.


Liam McNeely, Barrister, Mills Lane Chambers
Liam is an independent barrister at Mills Lane Chambers in Auckland, specialising in commercial litigation and dispute resolution. He has particular experience and expertise in trust and estate matters, shareholder disputes, claims against directors (and other fiduciaries), civil fraud claims and property disputes. He has acted as counsel on numerous contentious trust and estate cases and also regularly provides advice to trustees and beneficiaries in relation to non-contentious trust administration matters. Before moving to the bar in early 2024, Liam worked at Bell Gully, Auckland, and, prior to that, Cooke, Young & Keidan LLP, London.


Caroline Reynolds, Senior Solicitor, Brookfields Lawyers
Caroline joined the Brookfield’s Private Client team in 2024. Caroline advises on relationship property matters, family succession planning, enduring powers of attorney and trusts. Prior to joining Brookfield’s, Caroline worked as a solicitor focusing on relationship property matters, and family succession planning and then as a client manager within the professional trustee sector, focusing on existing trust management, trust establishment, succession planning, estate administration and the management of property attorney appointments. Caroline is also a Committee Member on the Mental Health and Disability Law Committee with The Law Association of New Zealand.

Ross Knight, Barrister, Old South British Chambers
Ross is an Auckland Barrister specialising in estate, trust, and relationship property litigation, both domestic and cross-border. He appears regularly in the Family Court, High Court, and Court of Appeal. He holds both Bachelor and Master of Laws Degrees from the University of Auckland and contributes editorial to industry and commercial publications. He is also a member of STEP (Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners) and frequently invited to speak at Legal Seminars and Conferences.

Timothy Orr, Partner, Martelli McKegg
Timothy is a partner specialising in trusts, estates, property and commercial law. Originally from Northern Ireland, Timothy graduated from the University of Dundee with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) in 2008. He assisted an NGO at the UNHCR in Geneva and then ran a legal aid team in Mombasa, Kenya providing legal advice on a wide range of criminal and family matters. Upon returning to the UK, Timothy worked on a high profile Public Inquiry under a former Court of Appeal Judge. Arriving in New Zealand in 2010, Timothy qualified as a lawyer in New Zealand and was a manager for ADLSI responsible for overseeing a wide range of legal forms and precedents including the standard Agreement for Sale and Purchase of Real Estate and the Deed of Lease. Timothy also worked closely with various Ministries, the Law Commission and the Courts on a wide range of law reform issues, particularly those relating to trusts and property law. Timothy then worked as a Senior Solicitor in a well-established medium sized law firm in Auckland specialising in trusts, estate and property law.

Israel Vaealiki, Partner, Jackson Russell
Israel leads Jackson Russell’s Private Client and Trusts team. Israel advises on succession planning, trusts, wills, estates, international and cross-border succession planning, trust and estate management and administration, relationship property issues, and charities and philanthropy and has over 20 years’ experience in these fields. Israel helps clients to manage risks associated with management and custodianship of assets by trustees, relationship breakdown, family disputes, retirement of key individuals, loss of mental capacity and death, the provision of inheritances, and charitable giving. Israel is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the International Bar Association (IBA), and is a Family Business Association Accredited Adviser.


David Adams, Associate, Tompkins Wake
David is an Associate in the Auckland office of Tompkins Wake. He mainly practises in the areas of relationship property, trust and estate litigation. He is an experienced advocate who has represented clients in the Family Court and the High Court, as well as in mediation and arbitration.

Rebecca Steens, Senior Associate, Holland Beckett
Rebecca is an estates, trust and elder law specialist. With a background in contentious trusts and estates, Rebecca brings a unique and practical perspective for her clients. Rebecca advises on: Estate Planning – Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney, Advance Care Plans & Living Wills; Estate Administration – Probate, Letters of Administration, Letters of Administration with Will Annexed, Exemplification of Probate, Reseal of Probate, preparing Deeds of Family Arrangement, supporting executors in contentious estates; Trusts – formation and administration including facilitating AGMs, reviewing and updating trust deeds and memorandums of wishes, making applications to the High Court for variations to trust deeds, advising trustees of their obligations and where necessary making applications for directions to the High Court, advising Beneficiaries of their rights, considering the overall purpose of having the trust (including creditor protection, succession, tax issues) and facilitate wind up; Elder Law – advising on the use of family trusts, Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney, working with medical practitioners; Occupation Right Agreements (aka Licence to Occupy) – regarding Retirement Villages or Rest Home Care Units. Prior to joining the succession and estates team, Rebecca had 8 years of experience in estate and trust litigation, including four years at an Offshore firm in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. Rebecca has brought this experience back to Tauranga and works closely with Holland Beckett’s family and litigation teams. Rebecca is a Tauranga local. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her young family and getting outdoors to cycle and run.