Clarify the legal setup for your unit trust

The consultation is aimed at the key legal decisions involved in putting a unit trust in place. That usually includes how units will be held, who the trustees and unitholders will be, how decisions are made, and what the trust deed needs to say to reflect the arrangement. If you proceed, we can draft the deed to match those instructions. This is different from a broad trust advisory engagement because the work here is centred on the setup stage and the core legal documents, rather than ongoing trust administration.

A unit trust is often considered where multiple people or entities want defined interests in an investment or venture, rather than the more discretionary approach seen in other trust structures. Common examples include shared property holdings, pooled investments, or business arrangements where each party's entitlement needs to be recorded clearly. Whether it is suitable depends on the ownership model, the commercial purpose and the factual context. Part of the consultation is working through whether a unit trust appears to fit what you are actually trying to achieve.

Sometimes the unit trust deed is only one part of the overall project. Broader work may be needed if assets are being moved into the trust, if there are lender or third-party requirements, if the trust is part of a wider restructure, or if the parties want linked agreements alongside the deed. You may also need accounting or tax advice before finalising the structure. This service helps with the legal setup and documentation for the unit trust itself, but it is not a substitute for specialist advice on financial or tax consequences.

If the consultation confirms that a unit trust is the right direction, the next step is usually preparing the trust deed and checking the details needed to finalise the structure. We may need information such as the proposed trustees, unitholders, ownership proportions and any decision-making rules you want reflected in the deed. Once the core document is completed, you can move to implementation. If related work is needed later, such as amendments or supporting documents, that would be handled as a separate piece of legal work rather than included automatically.

The fixed-fee covers the consultation, advice on the proposed unit trust structure, and drafting of a custom unit trust deed where that is part of the agreed work. It also includes guidance on trustee and unitholder responsibilities and practical implementation points. It does not include tax advice, accounting input, asset transfer mechanics, or ongoing representation after the trust is established. If your matter needs extra documents, restructuring work or ongoing support, that can be scoped separately once the initial setup position is clear.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Unit Trust Set Up Advice service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.