Friday, 13 March 2026
Mutual Wills
- Where to record the promises inherent in mutual wills
- Partial mutuality
- The survivor’s obligations following death
- The interplay of mutual wills and the relationship property regime
Presented by Vicki Ammundsen, Director and Notary Public, Vicki Ammundsen Trust Law
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD hour
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the legal principles governing mutual wills, including how and where mutual promises should be documented and the implications of partial mutuality
- Identify the survivor’s obligations following death and analyse the interaction between mutual wills and New Zealand’s relationship property regime
Chair
Timothy Orr, Partner, Martelli McKegg
Presenters
Timothy Orr, Partner, Martelli McKeggTimothy 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.
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.
