Originally Posted by
Snoopy
Voltage wrote: "Also, is there a point to have investments in a trust?"
If the ETFs you own in your own name are overseas domiciled - possibly. Although NZ has abolished death duty, it still exists in the UK and USA, for example. So you may find your estate gets stung by overseas jurisdictions if the lawyers have to write to a registry overseas and say you have died and can you please transfer those shares to your wife's or daughters' names. By owning overseas shares in the name of a trust all the transfers of ultimate ownership can be done within NZ.