Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD hour
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
Chair
Kate Wiseman, Mediator, Arbitrator, Collaborative Barrister, Bankside Chambers
Dealing with Difficult and Unreasonable Beneficiaries
In the Representation of V Trustees Limited the Royal Court of Jersey state that “… what we do accept is that Mr A will never be satisfied and will continue to ask questions. While some of those questions may be justified, a number of the assertions he made meant it was clear to us that Mr A would always be asking questions seeking information and challenging the Trustee’s decision. He will therefore always be putting the Trustee to significant cost and expense.”
- Canvas the options open to trustees who are confronted by difficult and unreasonable beneficiaries
Presented by Vicki Ammundsen, Director, Vicki Ammundsen Trust Law
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the legal and practical challenges trustees face when managing difficult or unreasonable beneficiaries
- Examine the options available to trustees in responding to persistent disputes, information requests and challenges to trustee decision-making
Presenters
Kate Wiseman, Mediator, Arbitrator, Collaborative Barrister, Bankside Chambers
Kate is an arbitrator, mediator and collaborative barrister. She works with people in organisational, business and/or family relationships to help them resolve disputes. Her work encompasses a broad range of commercial, property and family disputes. She has particular expertise in resolving family disputes concerning trusts, estates, companies and relationship property. She has a special interest in governance disputes, especially those concerning shareholders, incorporated societies, charitable trusts and body corporates. She had a 20-year career in business before coming to the law. She has held governance roles continuously since 2004 and is currently an elected member of the governing Council of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ).
Vicki Ammundsen, Director, 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.
