When a vulnerable client’s capacity is in question, the risks are high and the decisions you make can have lasting consequences. Strengthen your ability to identify warning signs, navigate testamentary capacity and supported decision making. Learn to identify the red flags of elder financial abuse and family pressure. Gain practical strategies for dealing with capacity evidence in PPPR proceedings. You’ll leave with practical guidance to protect your practice and clients, reduce risk and handle complex matters with greater confidence.
Thursday, 18 February 2027
Learning Objectives:
- Be able to identify vulnerable will-making clients including issues of testamentary capacity
- Understand supported decision making relating to adults with affected decision making capacity
- Be able to identify elder financial abuse and family pressure and understand the remedies available
- Gain practical strategies to strengthen capacity evidence
9.00am to 10.00am Vulnerable Clients and Will-Making: Testamentary Capacity and Statutory Wills
- Legal test for testamentary capacity
- Evidence of testamentary capacity
- Legal test for the Family Court to approve a will made by a property manager under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988
- Procedural requirements for statutory wills
- Role of lawyer for subject person in a statutory will application
- Court’s powers in relation to statutory wills
Presented by Dr Rhonda Powell, Barrister, Clarendon Chambers / Kate Sheppard Chambers
10.00am to 11.00am Increased Focus on Supported Decision Making in the Law Relating to Adults with Affected Decision Making Capacity
Presented by Iris Reuvecamp, Principal, Vida Law
11.00am to 11.15am Break
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD Hours
Chair:
Kate Wiseman, Associate Member, Bankside Chambers
11.15am to 12.15pm EPOAs, Elder Financial Abuse and Family Pressure: Red Flags, Safeguards and Remedies
- Impact of financial and other forms of elder abuse on older people and families
- Using EPOA and other PPPR Act provisions - safeguards and red flags?
- ‘Advice giving’ and ‘choice giving’ of older people’s decision-making
- Navigating pressures and challenges for practitioners and for older people
Presented by Hanny Naus, Professional Educator: Elder Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Age Concern New Zealand
12.15pm to 1.15pm Capacity Evidence in Practice: Briefing Doctors, Assessing Risk and Making Better PPPR Applications
- When PPPR court proceedings are required and which orders practitioners should consider
- Preparing effective applications, including capacity evidence, medical reports and supporting documentation
- Managing practical and procedural risks involving appointees, family dynamics and the protection of vulnerable adults
Presented by Helen Tyree, Director, McWilliam Tyree Lawyers
Presenters
Hanny Naus, Professional Educator: Elder Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Age Concern New Zealand
Hanny’s role is to support and encourage the professionalism of workers in elder abuse and neglect prevention throughout the country. It is a privilege for Hanny to work with these passionate and skilled colleagues who support older people have their needs and choices respected. In previous work roles, Hanny’s focus has included social work/counseling in community and health care settings with older people and people with disabilities.
Iris Reuvecamp, Principal, Vida Law
Iris is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Iris has been practising as a health and disability law specialist for twenty years both as in-house counsel and as an external advisor. Iris currently works part-time as in-house legal counsel for the Mental Health, Addiction and Intellectual Disability Service for Capital, Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa Districts, Te Whatu Ora, as well as advising a range of public and private health and disability sector organisations. Iris appears regularly in a range of courts and tribunals including the Human Rights Review Tribunal, Coroners Court, Family Court, District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. Iris is a court appointed lawyer for the subject person under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988 and lawyer for the child. She is an Affiliate of the Law Faculty and a Professional Practice Fellow of the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago and teaches on health and disability law.
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Helen Tyree, Director, McWilliam Tyree
Helen became a Director of the McWilliam Tyree in Wellington in 2021, having previously been an Associate and then Senior Associate at McWilliam Rennie (predecessor of McWilliam Tyree) since 2014. She has been practicing all areas of family law since 2003, initially in Taranaki before moving to Wellington. Helen often acts in complex relationship property matters, including matters involving trusts, companies and economic disparity and maintenance claims. She also takes appointments from the Family Court to represent children in the Family Court, and also people who lack capacity in applications for welfare guardians and property managers pursuant to the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act. Helen is a contributing author for the legal publication Westlaw, writing about relationship property agreements (separation agreements, contracting-out agreements, and setting aside those agreements). She also contributed significantly to McWilliam Rennie and McWilliam Tyree’s submissions to the Law Commission in relation to their reviews of relationship property, succession law and adult capacity law. She presents seminars for NZCLE and Legalwise on a range of family law matters, particularly relationship property and the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act. Helen graduated from Otago University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Laws and from Brunel University of London in 2003 with a Master of Law in Child Law and Policy (with distinction).
Kate Wiseman, Associate Member, Bankside Chambers
Kate is a dispute resolver active in arbitration, mediation and collaborative resolution. Her work encompasses a broad range of commercial, property and family disputes. She has particular expertise in resolving disputes involving trusts, estates, shareholders, companies and relationship property. She has a special interest in governance disputes, especially those concerning incorporated societies, charitable trusts and body corporates. Before coming to the law she had a 20 year career in business. She has held governance roles continuously since 2004 and is currently the elected Vice President of the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ).
Dr Rhonda Powell, Barrister, Clarendon Chambers / Kate Sheppard Chambers
Dr Rhonda Powell is a Christchurch barrister specialising in equity & trusts, estates, relationship property and the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988. Rhonda appears in Courts at all levels and is regularly appointed by the Family Court as lawyer for subject person. She has experience in addressing legal issues related to capacity in different contexts, including capacity to make enduring powers of attorney, statutory will applications, challenges to testamentary capacity and capacity to make inter-vivos transactions. Rhonda presents regularly on topics related to her practice areas.
