Trust deed
The foundational legal document of a NZ Managed Investment Scheme. Sets out the contractual relationship between Manager, Supervisor and unit holders.
The trust deed is the foundational legal document of a NZ Managed Investment Scheme. It is the contract between the Manager and the Supervisor that creates the scheme, defines the relationship to unit holders, and sets out the Manager's powers, the Supervisor's powers, fee mechanics, and the conditions under which the scheme can be wound up.
The trust deed sits above the SIPO in the hierarchy: SIPO amendments must operate within the powers granted by the trust deed. The trust deed itself can only be amended in accordance with its own amendment clauses, which typically require Supervisor consent and in some cases a unit-holder vote.
Trust deeds are filed on the FMA Disclose register alongside the PDS, SIPO and OMI. They are usually long documents written in technical legal language; the PDS provides the plain-English summary of the rights and obligations the trust deed creates.
Related terms
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MIS · Scheme
Managed Investment Scheme (MIS)
The legal vehicle under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 that holds investor money in a pooled fund. Every NZ retail managed fund is part of a registered MIS.
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MIS supervisor · Trustee
Supervisor
A licensed independent entity that holds the assets of a managed-investment scheme in trust and supervises the manager's compliance with the SIPO and FMC Act.
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SIPO
Statement of Investment Policy and Objectives (SIPO)
The fund-manager document setting out the fund's investment objectives, strategy, asset-allocation ranges, derivative use, hedging, rebalancing and exclusion rules — filed on FMA Disclose and binding on the manager.
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Disclose register · disclose-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz
FMA Disclose register
The official New Zealand register of every retail managed-investment scheme — the primary public source for fund PDSs, SIPOs, OMIs, Quarterly Fund Updates and full-portfolio holdings disclosures.