Terms and Conditions

By accessing the Caring Estate website (“the Website”), you agree that these terms and conditions apply to your use of the Website including our online services (“the Online Services”), where applicable.

1. Changes to Terms and Conditions

We may add to, remove or change these terms and conditions from time to time. We will give you notice on the Website of any changes and the date from when they become effective. Your continued use of the Website will indicate your acceptance of the changes. If you do not wish to accept them, you must not access the Website.

2. Copyright and other Intellectual Property

The materials contained on our Website are protected under copyright and other laws of New Zealand, and under international conventions and similar overseas laws. Unless otherwise stated, copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material published on the Website belongs to Caring Estates including the name and logo.

For any material on this Website that is identified as being subject to copyright of a third party, authorisation to use or reproduce such material must be obtained from that copyright holder.

3. Website Information

The information contained on our Website is for general information and use only. We make every effort to ensure that the content of the Website is up to date and error-free, but we do not give any guarantee or other assurance as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or fitness for any particular purpose of the content. Content on this Website is not intended to be a substitute for commercial judgement or professional advice. You should not act in reliance upon any content of the Website without first obtaining professional advice relevant to your circumstances.

4. Responsibility for Loss

To the full extent legally allowable, we disclaim all responsibility for damages or losses (including financial loss, loss of revenue, loss of profits or savings, indirect or consequential losses) arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise from your use of, or inability to use, our Website, including our Online Services. This disclaimer also applies to any material appearing on our Website, or from any action or decision taken as a result of using our Website, including our Online Services.

5. Links

The Website contains links to other websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability in relation to any content on websites that are not under our direct control.

6. Viruses

Although we intend to take reasonable steps to prevent the introduction of viruses or other destructive materials to our Website or Online Services, we do not guarantee that the service or materials that may be available from our Website do not contain such destructive features. We will not be liable for any damages or harm attributable to such features. If you rely on any materials available through this Website, you do so solely at your own risk.

7. Changes to Website

We may change the Website from time to time. We reserve the right to change, modify, suspend or discontinue any or all parts of our Website or our Online Services at any time. We also reserve the right at any time to charge fees for access to any materials appearing on the website or as part of our Online Services by advising you on the Website.

8. Site Access

Access to our Website, including the Online Services, may be interrupted, restricted or delayed from time to time. However, we will not be liable for damages or refunds in these circumstances.

9. Complaints

If we have let you down in any way, please get in touch by calling 021 077 7785 or email hayley@caringestates.co.nz

10. Communications

Any communication from us to you will be sent to your email address via an unsecured Internet connection. Consequently, the confidentiality of emails cannot be guaranteed. 

11. Applicable Law

These conditions and any agreements with Caring Estates arising from our Website are deemed to have been made in New Zealand and are governed by New Zealand law. Any dispute relating to our terms and conditions or any relevant agreement shall be referred to the New Zealand courts and the New Zealand courts shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any such dispute.

12. Consumer Guarantees

The disclaimers and limitations of liability set out in these terms and conditions do not affect your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, nor are they intended to exclude liability arising under statute.

13. Other Conditions

Further conditions apply to your use of the Online Services as set out in our Terms of engagement. Your acceptance of this Website Terms and Conditions and our Terms of engagement constitutes an agreement made between you and Public Trust for the use of the Online Services.

14. Inaccurate information

All information provided to us must be complete and accurate. If your information changes, you will be responsible for providing us with the updated information. We cannot be held liable for any loss, damage or consequence as a result of inaccurate or incomplete information we receive from you.

15. New Zealand context

The information available on this Website and all services on the Online Services have been developed and are intended for the use of New Zealand residents.

16. Privacy

At Caring Estates we take our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 seriously. This Privacy Policy reflects our commitment to respecting and protecting all personal information that we hold about you. This statement also outlines how Caring Estates gathers information about members of the public.

This policy will be reviewed regularly, and we might make some changes from time to time. You will always find the current version on our website.

Who are the people affected by this policy?

This policy applies to the personal information we hold about ‘living individuals’ who include:

  • Caring Estates customers and potential customers

  • beneficiaries of estates or trusts that we administer

  • other ‘associated people’ (such as shareholders and company directors) of Caring Estates customers

  • persons who voluntarily provide Caring Estates personal information, for example as part of an online survey.

How do we collect your personal information?

Caring Estates does not have any law enforcement responsibilities, and does not gather any information for these purposes.

In most cases we will collect your personal information directly from you, such as when:

  • you apply for a product or service, for example on an application form

  • you register with us online

  • you use our online services

  • you ask us for information

  • you make an appointment to visit us

  • you contact or connect with us on social media.

Under the Privacy Act we may also collect information about you from other people. For example, you might have appointed an agent or attorney to act on your behalf, or authorised someone else to supply your information.

From time to time Caring Estates may also collect personal information through searching publicly available information (media reports, social media, etc.) or by engaging third-parties to undertake such investigation on our behalf. This type of collection is subject to standard legal limits relating to privacy, access to private property, and the privacy/security of communications by individuals, among other things occurs, but primarily occurs to assist with:

  • performing our fiduciary obligations (for example, to locate a beneficiary of an estate); or

  • detecting or investigating potential threats to the physical security of our staff.

We take care that any information gathering, including by third parties, is undertaken appropriately and in a way that meets our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020, the Bill of Rights Act 1990, the State Sector Code of Conduct, and Information Gathering Model Standards at all times. We may also continue to collect your personal information for as long as you have a relationship with us.

What personal information do we collect?

The personal information that we collect will depend on the Caring Estates products and services that you use or that interest you. For example, we might collect:

  • your name, postal address, telephone number, email address and date of birth

  • information about your personal, family and financial circumstances, including the assets you own.

The personal information we specifically ask for is necessary to enable us to provide you with services.  If you do not provide the personal information requested, we may not be able to provide you with the service or continue with an existing service.

How do we use your personal information?

We collect, use and store your personal information mainly to provide you with products, services and information that you have asked for or to otherwise meet our fiduciary obligations.

For example, we may use your personal information:

  • to administer, monitor and manage your Caring Estates products and services

  • to process your requests for information

  • to develop new products and services (using feedback and other information that we have received from you)

  • to identify and contact you about events and other products and services that might interest you (these could include events, products and services offered by other organisations in conjunction with Caring Estates)

  • as part of ‘data matching’ activities, in which we compare your information with information that is public and/or held by someone else (for example, using a service provider to confirm your postal address details)

  • to meet our legal obligations, as well as obligations imposed by governmental, judicial or regulatory entities or authorities in other jurisdictions, and entities that supervise or regulate Caring Estates.

  • to locate beneficiaries or other third parties required to perform our business.

We may also use your personal information to communicate with you about:

  • your current Caring Estates products and services

  • other products or services (including those of other organisations) that we believe may interest you

  • general marketing or promotional activities.

Who would we provide your information to?

There may be times when we may need to share some of your information to help us provide you with the services requested, or meet our legal obligations – such as:

  • with your agent, attorney or authorised signatory

  • with people or organisations that undertake services for us (such as where we ask a market research provider to get your feedback on our products and services or carry out ‘data matching’ for us)

  • when we need legal or other professional advice

  • to help meet obligations imposed by governmental, judicial or regulatory entities or authorities in other jurisdictions, and entities that supervise or regulate Caring Estates.

    For example, we may disclose some of your personal information to selected third parties to help us comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act 2009, and to ensure that we act according to the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002; if we have reasonable grounds to believe that a transaction or proposed transaction may be relevant to an investigation or prosecution of someone for a money laundering offense; and to help us comply with the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and/or any agreements between the New Zealand Government and other countries’ governments.

Where we disclose your information to a service provider we make sure they are aware of the importance we place on protecting your privacy. They are required to keep your information confidential, and only use it for the purpose for which we have supplied it.

In all other cases we will only disclose your personal information if it is permitted under the Privacy Act.

How do we store your personal information?

We will take reasonable care, or require any third-party as the case may be, to keep your personal information safe from loss, misuse and unauthorised disclosure.

Caring Estates stores your electronic-copy personal information within New Zealand hosted data centres and any hard copies are stored in a secure and locked filing cabinet.

The law requires us to destroy your personal information if we no longer require it for the purpose for which we collected it, or if it is no longer required to meet our legal requirements. If we have to keep it to meet our legal requirements, we will continue holding it for the legally required timeframe.

How can you check and correct your personal information?

We will not use or disclose your personal information without taking reasonable steps to check that it is accurate and complete.

You are welcome to ask for, have access to, and check the personal information that we hold about you – and if you believe that any of it is incorrect, you can ask us to correct it. (Note: if we choose not to make the correction, you can ask us to attach to the information a statement of the correction you wanted).

We can only refuse you access to your information in very limited circumstances, such as when disclosure would involve an unjustified breach of someone else’s privacy.

What happens in the event of a breach of privacy?

  1. In the unlikely event of a privacy breach, we will take the following steps in dealing with it.
    Contain: we will contain the breach to minimise its impact – for example, we will contact the inadvertent recipient of the personal information and request they return or destroy the information.

  2. Assess: we will assess the breach by gathering the facts and evaluating the risks, and where possible, take action to remediate any risk of harm.

  3. Notify: we will notify you and report to the Privacy Commissioner any privacy breaches that have caused serious harm, or are likely to do so, in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.

  4. Prevent: review the incident and consider what actions can be taken to prevent future breaches.

How to contact us

If you would like more information, have any questions or would like to provide us with feedback about this policy, please feel free to:

  • Phone us on 021 077 7785

  • Email us at hayley@caringestates.co.nz 

  • Write to us at:
    Caring Estates 
    PO Box 9092
    Hamilton 3240

If you make a privacy complaint, we will follow it up through our internal complaints process. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner on 0800 803 909 or visit www.privacy.org.nz.

Please note that this Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time.