Before his death in 2010, Neal Johnson learnt the family trust he had established three decades earlier left capital tied up until 2058 with no ability to access capital or terminate the trust early. His two children, now in their eighties, needed High Court approval to release trust capital.
Children Richard and Diana saw no advantage in allowing the trust to trundle along until such time as their own children were in their eighties before capital could be released. They wanted their own children to benefit immediately.
The High Court was told trustee expenses were eroding income available for distribution, with expenses for the 2025 year amounting to nearly fifty per cent of trust income.
Distributions from trust income had been made to Neal’s widow, up to her death in early 2026.
Trust capital currently totals just over three million dollars.
Public Trust is named as trustee.
It supported moves to terminate the Neal Grenville Johnson Trust.
Trusts Act High Court approval was given to family proposals for trust capital to be split in two: one half share to be divided equally between Richard’s two children; the other half placed in a trust for the benefit of Diana’s children.
At issue were rights of contingent beneficiaries named in Neal Johnson’s original family trust.
Listed as potential beneficiaries are children and grandchildren of a cousin; named to receive trust assets in 2058 should no children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Neal survive to that date.
Given there are eleven Neal great-grandchildren currently alive who would be aged between 37 and 51 in 2085, the chance of any alternative contingent beneficiary inheriting is so remote as to be almost theoretical, Judge MacGillivray said. Their potential interest in the Trust could be ignored when resettling Neal Johnson’s family trust assets on two new trusts.
re Neal Grenville Johnson Trust – High Court (27.07.26)
26.209