This is a trust which allows a family to bring together and consolidate the land interests of a parent or Tupuna whether alive or deceased. This in effect means that if you, your parents or Tupuna have interests in various Maori Lands then they could be bought together under
the umbrella of a Whanau Trust, whereby all income recieved would be placed in that Trust and governed by Trustees. What are the benefits of a Whanau Trust? Probably the most important benefit is that the Whanau Trust stops further fragmentation of the land interests. The major benefit is that the Trustees will handle all matters pertaining to the Whanau Trusts land interests. As mentioned earlier, no further fragmentation means no further sucessions to split the present shares into valueless
shares, this is something that can happen after several generations of sucessions. The first benefit has a flow on effect
to the second in that with the appointment of Trustees land management becomes a lot easier. Other benefits include
No further sucession fees
No gifting of shares applications within the family to acquire enough shares for partition or building sites
No need to concern yourself with who should get the shares as the interests will be held in the Whanau Trust
