Guardian Trust beneficiary worried about fund freeze

The freezing of the Guardian Mortgage Fund has angered a Guardian Trust beneficiary who does not know where his money is.

Taupo businessman Wayne Richmond said he has asked Guardian Trust, which administers the family inheritance, where the funds have been invested but says it has repeatedly declined or ignored his requests for the information.

Richmond is concerned investments in the Guardian Mortgage Fund and those of other finance companies have been undertaken on behalf of estates or trusts whose beneficiaries have no knowledge of these actions.

He estimates the Guardian Trust is sitting on around $4 million in family trust assets including the sale of his father's dairy farm.

As the executor, Guardian Trust appointed itself trustee of the Richmond family trust when Maurice Richmond died in 1992. The two other trustees died around the same time, leaving the Guardian Trust as the sole trustee.

As a beneficiary, Richmond has tried to have a say in where the assets are invested, to see timelines for the settlement of the estate, and has also tried to extract funds for his disabled sister's care.

When the Guardian Trust ignored his requests for information, Richmond took it to court, and the trust hired a Queen's Counsel in defence.

Richmond would like to see the establishment of an intermediary - such as an Ombudsman to protect the beneficiaries of trusts.

"We can only assume that the financial difficulties in the Guardian Trust extend beyond their mortgage fund and that both our estate and trust monies are now being used in some way for the Guardian Trust's own purposes," he said.

Privacy issues prevent the Guardian Trust from talking to the media about individual investors or trust beneficiaries.

But it said the Guardian Mortgage Fund has been built up since 1986 through the "normal course" of the trust's business operations and it holds $249 million from 3700 investors.

A spokesman said the mortgage fund only invests in first mortgages where advances are restricted to a maximum 60 per cent of valuations across the commercial, retail, industrial, farming and residential sectors.