At a time when all parts of the health sector are lobbying for increased funding, the High Court was told a medical charity set up to support impecunious general practitioners was being hived off because there were no current applications for financial support and that ‘medical practitioners are generally well-off with few doctors and their families facing financial distress.’
Tracing its origins back to 1896, New Zealand Medical Benevolent Fund assets are being handed on to the Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network on the liquidation of Fund trustee: New Zealand Medical Association Inc.
Documents filed on liquidation of the trustee indicate some $872,000 is being handed over to Hauora Taiwhenua.
High Court approval was needed for the transfer because the Medical Benevolent Fund is a charitable trust.
The legal nicety is that a charitable trust must have a continuing purpose. It must either exhaust all its resources in furtherance of its charitable aims, or pass on its endowment to a charity having similar purposes.
Charitable Trusts Act court approval is required to ensure any transfer of funds continues to implement donors’ original purpose.
The High Court was told the Medical Benevolent Fund had become trustee of two merged medical charities: an 1896 friendly society in which general practitioners paid an annual subscription to fund temporary financial support and pensions for practitioners in need; and, an Auckland-based benevolent fund established during World War Two to similarly assist local medical practitioners needing financial assistance.
The 1896 friendly society contributed just over $430,000 to combined funds at time of the 2015 merger.
The High Court has approved transfer of Medical Benevolent trust funds across to Hauora Taiwhenua Rural health, on condition Hauora’s trust deed specify any subsequent transfer be referred back to the High Court for further Charitable Trusts Act approval.
Hauora Taiwhenua was founded by a group of Canterbury rural doctors in 1987.
Wording of its trust deed leaves open the possibility of health workers other than general practitioners receiving financial benefits.
re New Zealand Medical Association Inc – High Court (16.07.25)
25.161