THE PERPETUAL TRUSTEES COMPANY LIMITED

Evening Star, Issue 23908, 11 June 1941, Page 5

THE PERPETUAL TRUSTEES COMPANY LIMITED

FIFTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING The fifty-seventh annual meeting of the Perpetual Trustees Estate and. Agency Company of New Zealand Ltd. was held in the board room of the company yesterday afternoon. Mr Edgar C. Hazlett, chairman of directors, presided, and he was supported by the following Messrs James Begg, Hoh. W. Downie Stewart, C. Stanley Smith, IW. R. Brown (Dunedin), R. J. Gilmour (Invercargill), E. G. Kerr (Timaru) , R. K; Ireland (Oamaru), A. R. Turnbull (North Canterbury), H. S. Lawrence (Christchurch) j and the general manager, Mr A. Ibbotson. Apologies were received from Messrs'T. Somerville and T. Ooull, and the meeting was well attended. The Chairman prefaced his address ,by saying, 41 1 want to .say : that the first thing, in our minds , to-day. is the war—that we. cannot get away. from. I know that you will join with me in recording your sorrow and sympathy to .those people who-have lost , their relatives in this war, and also extend your sympathy to those who are having an rn>ious time through; relatives who ‘are fighting.,in- .variousparts,'„of,' the Empire.” CHAIRMAN’S TtDDRESS. . , “ When we met last -year! we all -ban hopes that the war might have been over by now,” -said the Chairman. “These hopes have not been fulfilled, and the conflict continues with all its many tragedies. Wb are all confident that the victory will eventually be ours. Numerous clients of ours are away on active service,, as are many members of our staff. /We have clients living' in Great Britain,’ Africa, Canada, Australia, and other countries. Their private affairs here are managed by this company, and we have had many acknowledgments of the good work earned out by our trained staff on their behalf. " Taxation work continues to increase in volume and now demands a very con- . siderable amount of time and attention on the part of the staff. Temporary vacancies bn our staff through our men going on Motive service have been filled iu the meantime by young ladies coming to our assistance, and their work has been very helpful. The provisions for supplementing the salaries of . those members of our staff on active service have been arranged on ft basis that we believe to be satisfactory to those concerned. “ A vacancy on our Board of has been filled by the appointment of Mr Wm. R. Brown; Mr Brown was recently president of the New ■ Zealand Society of Accountants, and has had long experience of accountancy work in Otago. His father, the late Mr James Brown, well known m the commercial world, was a strong and valued supporter of this company. The board feels sure shareholders will approve of Mr Brown’s appointment as a director of this company. DEATH DUTIES. “ A matter of considerable moment to executors and trustees is developing through the high incidence of death duties and the present difficulties of realising assets. Because the duties have to be paid within 'a few months of the decease, the executors find themselves forced to realise - the more readily saleable and attractive assets. Thishas the effect of leaving the estate witli the more doubtful of perhaps unsaleable assets with which to carry out the trusts of the will. After the duties have been paid, the legacies, if any, left by a testator have to be paid out. Aj?ain, unless there are special directions in the will that the legacies are not to be paid immediately. the best of the remaining assets ■may have to be sold- Greater care and thought have, therefore, to be given in .these days, both by testators and their legal advisers, as to the _ constitution of the assets of the estate in question and ! as to whether legacies should be bequeathed, and if so,-when they should become payable. No doubt the chief emphasis will he required to he placed on the testator’s duty to the members of his own family to make sure that their interests may not be jeopardised. “A year ago I stated how necessary it was to stress again and again the wisdom of testators revising their wills periodically, because of these rapidly-changing times and of new circumstances and prospects affecting one’s life and property. The need to do so is just as urgent to-day as it was then, and I have no hesitation in again drawing your attention to this matter. LEGISLATION. “It was not anticipated that any legislation which would directly affect our class of . business would be enacted during’ the past year except, perhaps, legislation of a financial nature. However, a piece of tax legislation of major importance was passed in part IV. of the Finance Act, 1940, which had the effect of increasing and altering the rates of death duties on estates and gifts to what' may be termed the high-water mark of taxation on capital. Some consternation was caused when it was found that charitable bequests and gifts wore not to be exempt from duty, but fortunately the seriousness of this alteration was indicated to the Government and a clause in the Finance Act ■(No. 2), 1940, restored this very proper ex- . eruption. “ It will be realised that the raising and payment of death duties, amounting in the larger estates to over 50 per cent, will impose on executors much greater difficulty and anxiety than has heretofore been experienced by them. It is obvious that to meet the duties the liquid and saleable assets will be the first to be disposed of. thus leaving the more difficult and doubtful assets in the hands of trustees to administer according to the trusts of the will. As I have already said, very great care and foresight will therefore have to be exer-

cised by testators in'preparing their wills to ensure that that part of their estates which is left after payment of duties and expenses may be dealt with in a practical manner. • The powers of trustees to invest trust funds, have been enlarged by. the National Savings Act, 1940, which empowers trustees to invest in any. National Savings investment account. The Fair Bents Act, 1936, has been further ’ extended to September 30, 1941. BRANCHES. “ Our branches at Dunedin, Invercargill, Oamaru, Timaru, and Christchurch continue t 6 show steady progress and to provide moderately remunerative results.' Your directors consider ,that the purpose in view when establishing branches outside of Dunedin has been accomplished and that these branch, businesses have added to, and will continue to add to, the usefulness of our institution as- a trustee company. “ I desire to place on record our indebtedness to our branch directors, Messrs R. J. Gilmour (of Invercargill), R. K. Ireland (of Oamaru). E. G. Kerr (of Timaru), and A. R. Turnbull and H. S. Lawrence (of Christchurch), and also to add a" word of appreciation; of /the work of our branch managers and their ‘ respective staffs. To my ; co-directors’ resident in .Dunedin I desire, to express my. appreciation of their co-opera-tion at all times so willingly given, and of the, work/of the staff at head office and Dunedin branch.’’ The Chairman then commented upon various aspects of the -annual accounts and the upward trend in the - volume of the. company’s business,, as indicated by the figures, and concluded by moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet; Y Mr Wm. R. Brown, in seconding the adoption of the report and .balance sheet, said the chairman had so fully and clearly covered the affairs of the company that it left little for comment in a general way. The more ■he learned of the active operations of this company,’ the Still further convinced he became of the valuable service such an institution offers to the public. With the increasing complexities of the various forms of taxation, it is a great comfort to know that such ah institution as the Perpetual Trustees Co. is available and at the disposal of all who care to take advantage of the services which it has to offer,. It has the advantages of a trained and ..expert personnel and also permanency, and was peculiarly fitted to bring to bear an entirely impersonal attitude to the: problems with which it had to deal. Mr Brown dealt with the favourable position in which New Zealand was placed as compared with some other parts of the Empire, and he instanced some war. legislation necessary in the Mother Country for the adjustment of liabilities. “ May God forbid such a state of emergency will arise in pur Dominion,” said Mr Brown, “ but if if should, the clients of the Perpetual TrusCo._ can rest assured that, should they be .implicated, their affairs will be. in the hands of competent persons skilled in the handling of such matters.’’ DIRECTORS AND AUDITORS, On the motion’of Mr J. Sutherland Ross, seconded by Mr J. S. Skinner, the retiring directors—Messrs.Edgar C. Hazlett, R. J. Gilmour, and Hon. W. Downie Stewart—were reappointed. Mr F. G. Duncan prol posed and Mr P. H. Power seconded the reappointment of the auditors. VOTE OF THANKS. ! A vote of thanks to the directors and staff was proposed by Mr Nat Paterson, and was replied to by the chairman (Mr E. C. Hazlett) and the general manager (Mr A. Ibbotson).