How New Zealand actually works, wills and estates
Wills and estates, what happens to your stuff
A will is the only document that lets you choose where your property goes when you die, without one, the Administration Act 1969 decides for you by a fixed formula that has not changed in decades and does not care what your family thinks is fair. The estate, the grant, the formula, and the paperwork that comes before death (the enduring power of attorney) are all on this page.
What a will actually does
Under the Wills Act 2007 a valid will needs four things: you must be 18 or over (or married, in a civil union, or in the forces), it must be in writing, you must sign it, and two witnesses must watch you sign and sign too, witnesses who cannot themselves inherit under it — Wills Act 2007. A will names an executor (who does the work), can name guardians for children under 18, and disposes of everything you own in your own name.
Two quiet traps. Marriage or civil union revokes an earlier will unless it was written in contemplation of that marriage, divorce does not. And the will does not override the Property (Relationships) Act: a surviving partner can elect to take their equal share of relationship property instead of whatever the will left them.
No will, the fixed formula
Die without a will ("intestate") and Part 3 of the Administration Act 1969 distributes the estate by table, no discretion, no weighing of what anyone intended — Administration Act 1969:
| Who survives you | What they get |
|---|---|
| Partner + children | Partner: all personal chattels, the first $155,000, then one-third of the rest. Children: the remaining two-thirds, equally. |
| Partner + parents, no children | Partner: chattels, the first $155,000, then two-thirds of the rest. Parents: the other third, equally. |
| Partner only | Everything. |
| Children only | Everything, split equally. |
| No partner, children, or parents | Down the bloodline, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts, until someone qualifies or the Crown takes it. |
The $155,000 statutory legacy is set by regulation, unchanged since 2009, and it does not track the house-price decade. "Partner" includes de facto of three years or more.
The formula's sharp edge: a de facto partner qualifies, but a partner of under three years generally does not, the estate can pass to distant blood over the person you lived with. And the split can force a house sale: two-thirds of a mortgage-free home to the children is real money the partner may not have in cash.
Go deeper, the grant, the $40,000 threshold, and what the executor does
Nobody may deal with the estate's assets, sell the house, close the accounts, without the High Court's paper. With a will, the executor applies for probate. Without one, a close relative applies for letters of administration and the Act picks who. Applications file at the Probate Registry in Wellington (remotely, no trip needed); the filing fee is $269.
Below the small-estate line, no grant is needed at all: banks, superannuation funds, and insurers can release money to relatives without one when the amount held is under $40,000, the threshold quadrupled from $15,000 on 24 September 2025, which is why so many modest estates now never see the court — Administration (Prescribed Amounts) Amendment Regulations 2025.
The executor's sequence is fixed: gather the assets, pay the debts (funeral first, then tax, then everything else), hold what is left for the claims window, then distribute. Estates are usually held six months so claimants under the Family Protection Act can come forward, pay out early and the executor carries the risk personally.
Who can override the will
- Family Protection Act 1955, a spouse, child, or certain other family who were owed "proper maintenance and support" and did not get it can claim against the estate. Cutting a child out entirely is allowed on paper; the Act is how it gets challenged — Family Protection Act 1955.
- Property (Relationships) Act 1976, death counts as an end to the relationship: the surviving partner can choose the equal sharing regime over the will's gift.
- Testamentary promises, the Law Reform (Testamentary Promises) Act 1949 lets someone who was promised an inheritance for work or care claim when the will does not deliver it.
Before death, the enduring power of attorney
A will speaks after you die; an enduring power of attorney speaks while you are alive but cannot. Two separate documents, both created under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988, both only valid if signed while you still have capacity:
- Property EPA, the attorney you name can run your money: bank accounts, the house, the bills. It can operate immediately or only once a doctor certifies you cannot, your choice on the form.
- Personal care and welfare EPA, the attorney decides on treatment and living arrangements, and it only activates on incapacity. One attorney only, here.
No EPA means no shortcut: the Family Court has to appoint a property manager or welfare guardian instead, slower, costlier, and it picks the person. The forms are standard; a lawyer or a trustee company (Public Trust, the local firms) must witness them.
Go deeper, DIY wills, and where they go wrong
A will kit is legal, the Act cares about signature and witnesses, not about who drafted it. The failures are in execution: one witness instead of two, a beneficiary witnessing (their gift fails), a signature in the wrong place, or wording ambiguous enough to need a court to interpret, the court costs more than the lawyer would have.
The honest rule of thumb: an estate that is a modest bank balance and a car can survive a careful kit will. Property, a business, blended family, or anyone you intend to leave less than the Act thinks they deserve, those are lawyer-shaped problems, and Public Trust will also write one as executor.
After signing: tell the executor where the original lives. A copy is not a will for probate purposes, a lost original starts a presumption the will was destroyed intentionally.
The Christchurch layer
- Who writes them locally, any Christchurch lawyer; Public Trust's Christchurch office; trustee companies. Community Law Canterbury's free sessions cover simple wills and EPAs — Community Law Canterbury.
- The court side, probate and administration applications file electronically to the High Court's Wellington registry; contested estate and EPA matters in Christchurch are heard in the High Court at the Justice Precinct on Lichfield Street.
- The neighbour pages, relationship property and separation are their own law: /how-nz-works/law covers rights and courts, /how-nz-works/tax covers what death does to KiwiSaver and estates (there is no inheritance tax in New Zealand, the estate's last tax return is the IRD's piece).
The glossary
- Estate
- Everything a person owned in their own name at death, minus debts, and excluding anything held jointly or in a trust.
- Executor
- The person the will appoints to gather the assets, pay the debts, and distribute what is left.
- Probate
- The High Court's grant confirming a will and the executor's authority, the paperwork banks and Land Registry require.
- Letters of administration
- The equivalent grant when there is no will, the Act, not the deceased, chooses the administrator.
- Intestacy
- Dying without a valid will, the estate follows the Administration Act's fixed table.
- Enduring power of attorney
- A document naming who decides for you on property or on personal care if you cannot, signed while you still can.
- Statutory legacy
- The first $155,000 of an intestate estate that goes to the surviving partner before the thirds are split.
The Canterbury of it
Estate law here carries a date. The 22 February 2011 earthquake killed 185 people in one lunchtime, couples, workmates, whole families, and where people die together and the order of death cannot be proved, the Simultaneous Deaths Act 1958 supplies it: each estate devolves as if its owner had survived the others, and jointly owned property splits into equal tenants-in-common shares — NZHistory, the February earthquake; Simultaneous Deaths Act 1958.
The paperwork problems were literal. Solicitors' strongrooms sat inside the CBD cordon for months, and an original will that exists but cannot be produced is, at the probate counter, a missing will. Then the money ran long: EQC and private-insurer payouts, and for red-zoned owners the Crown's voluntary purchase offers, open until April 2019, became assets that executors administered on behalf of the dead — LINZ, the Crown offers.
The tail is still in the building: the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal, created to clear the quake era's stalled insurance claims, is administered from the same Justice Precinct that took over the courts, some of its files are estate assets a decade and a half on — justice.govt.nz, Christchurch courts.
Last reviewed 20 September 2026, sources: legislation.govt.nz (Wills Act 2007, Administration Act 1969, the 2025 prescribed-amounts regulations, Family Protection Act 1955, PPPR Act 1988), justice.govt.nz (probate filing), Public Trust, canlaw.org.nz. Corrections: /corrections.
Questions, answered briefly
Under the Wills Act 2007: you must be 18 or over (or married, in a civil union, or in the forces), the will must be in writing, you must sign it, and two witnesses must watch you sign and sign too, witnesses who cannot themselves inherit under it.
Part 3 of the Administration Act 1969 distributes the estate by a fixed table: with a surviving partner and children, the partner takes the personal chattels, the first $155,000 and one-third of the rest, and the children split the remaining two-thirds equally. There is no discretion, and a de facto partner generally only qualifies after three years.
No, banks, superannuation funds and insurers can release money without a grant when the amount held is under $40,000, a threshold that quadrupled from $15,000 on 24 September 2025. Above that, the executor applies for probate ($269 filing fee) or, without a will, a close relative applies for letters of administration, filed remotely to the High Court's Probate Registry in Wellington.
A document that speaks while you are alive but cannot: under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988, a property EPA lets a named attorney run your money, and a personal care and welfare EPA lets one attorney decide on treatment and living arrangements once incapacity is certified. Both are only valid if signed while you still have capacity, without one, the Family Court appoints someone instead.