About us
We provide professional trustee services to support the Māori Trustee to fulfil her trustee duties and responsibilities.
Ki te taiao,
Ki te whai ao,
Ki te ao mārama,
Tihei Mauriora.
E totoka ai te tumu o te papatipu hei oranga mō Te Iwi Māori, o mua, o naianei, o ānamata hoki.
Ko Te Tumu Paeroa tēnei, te kaitiaki, kaitaunaki, kaiwhakawhanake i te mana o ngā whenua Māori, huri noa.
Dr Charlotte Severne, Kaitiaki Māori
The Māori Trustee
Dr Charlotte Severne was appointed to the role of Māori Trustee in September 2018 by the Minister for Māori Development.
The Māori Trustee is appointed, in most cases by the Māori Land Court, to act as trustee to administer Māori freehold land and other assets on behalf of the beneficial owners. The Māori Trustee also accepts appointments from the Māori Land Court and from Māori Land Court appointed trustees to provide agency services for owners or a trust.
Currently, the Māori Trustee administers as trustee or agent approximately 1,800 Māori Land Trusts and other Māori entities. This is about one third of all Māori Land Trusts.
The terms of her trusts for trustee appointments are set out in orders of the Māori Land Court, called trust orders.
Where she is appointed to carry out agency services on behalf of a Māori Land Trust, the terms of the agency will be set out in an agency services agreement, which is commonly referred to as a service level agreement (SLA).
Not all whenua Māori is administered by the Māori Trustee. A full, public record of all whenua Māori and its owners and trustees is maintained by the Māori Land Court.
Te Tumu Paeroa
As the Office of the Māori Trustee, Te Tumu Paeroa is the organisation that supports the Māori Trustee to carry out her statutory and other legal duties, responsibilities and functions.
When the Māori Trustee is appointed as responsible trustee of a trust, she has legal responsibility to administer the whenua and assets vested in the trust in accordance with the terms of the trust order. We support her to ensure that this occurs.
We also ensure for trusts where the Māori Trustee is responsible trustee, that advisory trustees and owners of these trusts are kept informed about important matters relating to our administration of the trust and the whenua. This includes:
- Holding meetings of owners and advisory trustees
- Providing information regarding the administration of the trust and the whenua
You can find out more about how we support owners and trustees here.
How we are funded
The operating costs of Te Tumu Paeroa are met from two sources:
- Crown Appropriation
- Fees and commissions charged for services provided in accordance with the Māori Trustee Act 1953 and Māori Trustee Regulations 2009.
Who we report to
The Crown contributes to the operating costs of Te Tumu Paeroa under a Crown Funding Agreement. The Māori Trustee is accountable to the Minister for Māori Development for the use of Crown funding.
An Annual Report is also prepared by the Māori Trustee, which is tabled by the Minister in the House of Representatives and then made public.
You can find our Annual Reports here.