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 teams. He has more than 11 years of experience advising clients across trusts, relationship property, wills, and estates. 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 also advises on charities law, assisting with the establishment, registration, restructuring, and governance of charitable and philanthropic entities. His background in tax provides an additional layer of insight, ensuring clients’ arrangements are both effective and tax-efficient. Hugh has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland.


Alison Gilbert, Partner, Brookfields Lawyers
Alison Gilbert is a Partner at Brookfield Lawyers, where she leads the Private Client Team. With a practice spanning contentious estates, trust disputes, elder law, relationship property, charitable trusts, and estate planning, Alison is widely regarded as a leader in her field. She has extensive experience advising trustees, beneficiaries, and private clients on complex trust and estate matters, including asset management structures, estate disputes, and elder law issues. Alison also provides expert guidance on relationship property matters, particularly in the context of trusts and succession planning. Alison serves as the Chair of the New Zealand branch of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), the leading global professional body for trust and estate practitioners, and is a member of the STEP Contentious Trusts & Estates Special Interest Group Global Steering Committee. She is the lead author of Lexis Nexis Succession - Practical Guidelines and has been consistently ranked in Band 1 as a private client lawyer in Chambers & Partners High Net Worth Guide from 2018 to 2024. A dedicated member of the legal community, Alison is involved with several professional organizations, including the Estate and Tax Planning Council and the Auckland Women Lawyers Association, and is a Life Member of the Life Education Trust.

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. He has considerable experience assisting parties in respect of Health and Safety and other regulatory prosecutions. 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.

Carmel Walsh, Barrister, Bankside Chambers
Carmel has over 30 years’ experience as a litigator in New Zealand, Hong Kong, and England. She was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand; and a solicitor and solicitor advocate (Higher Courts Civil) in England. She holds both a New Zealand and English practising certificate. As a London based partner of an international law firm she managed high value multinational complex litigation particularly involving multinational accountancy practices. She was a contributing author to Informa’s Reinsurance Practice and the Law, and a former secretary and editor of the Negligence and Damages committee of the International Bar Association. Carmel now specialises in property litigation, equity and trusts, estates litigation and relationship property where trusts or complex issues arise. Carmel has served on the boards of many arts organisations and trusts, and is the Chair of the board of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Gorton, Senior Associate, TGT Legal
Mike is a solicitor qualified in England & Wales and advises in relation to wills, succession, relationship property and estates. Mike 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. Mike has a strong client focus and particularly enjoys working with them to achieve their goals.

Natasha Williams, Senior Associate, Brookfields Lawyers
Natasha joined the Brookfield’s private client team in March 2025. Natasha provides expert legal guidance 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, communications between trustees and beneficiaries, advice to Property and Welfare Attorneys, Relationship Property matters and Estate Administration. Prior to joining Brookfield’s, Natasha worked as a Senior Associate in a general practice firm focusing on trust establishment, management of trust funds, undertaking annual trust reviews and meetings, succession and estate planning, preparation of Enduring Powers of Attorneys and Wills. Natasha is dedicated to providing personalised, pragmatic advice tailored to each client’s unique needs. Natasha works to ensure that clients’ wishes are honoured, assets protected. Natasha enjoys getting to know clients and forming long lasting relationships.

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. She has a special interest in trust management and relationship property matters. 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. Caroline is passionate about helping her clients navigate and resolve matters in what can often be a challenging area of law.

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 is a partner leading Jackson Russell’s Private Client and Trusts team. He has over 20 years’ experience in helping clients achieve success with their family succession planning, wealth preservation and philanthropic goals. Israel helps clients to preserve and manage family wealth and advises on succession planning, trusts, wills, estates, international and cross-border succession planning, trust and estate management and administration, and relationship property issues. He also advises on issues for charities and philanthropy. He provides practical advice to families, business owners, entrepreneurs, investors, professional advisers, directors and senior executives, professional trustees, charities and philanthropists. 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. Outside of his professional life, Israel enjoys spending time with family, playing golf and basketball, and travelling to interesting places.

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.