Legal Executives New Zealand 24 Spring 2026 REGULAR FEATURE ...Continued from page 23 exclude Ms Sullivan and Danielle Sayers (Mr Sullivan’s children’s stepmother) from benefiting under the will. Mr Pope had executed six wills over the last five years of his life. Mr Baldwin came to believe that Ms Sullivan had exercised influence over Mr Pope to ensure she benefited under his will, but Mr Baldwin's complaints to Age Concern, the police and the Real Estate Authority about Ms Sullivan were not accepted. Mr Pope telephoned new lawyers on 16 May 2023, seeking to remove Ms Sullivan from his will because Mr Baldwin had told him she was “in it for herself.” Mr Pope said 60% of his estate was to go to Mr Baldwin, 30% to Stephen Baldwin and 10% to Mark Pope. On 17 May Mr Baldwin advised the lawyers that he wanted Mr Pope to undergo a capacity assessment before anything further was done, and they were not to meet with Mr Pope until that was completed. When Mr Baldwin visited Mr Pope on 23 May, Mr Pope said that he was being too harsh and wanted to keep Ms Sullivan and Ms Sayers in his will. On 12 June, a medical practitioner certified that Mr Pope had capacity and was competent to make decisions for himself. Mr Pope died on 9 July. Justice Mander said that Mr Baldwin sought to validate the lawyer's file note of 16 May 2023 as a codicil to Mr Pope's last will on the basis that it reflected the deceased's final testamentary intentions. Justice Mander said there was no dispute that the requirements of section 14 (1) of the Act had been met. It was not contested that the file note appeared to be a will and that it did not comply with the requirements of section 11. The essential issue in dispute was whether the court could be satisfied that the document was an accurate record of the deceased's final or settled testamentary intentions. His Honour said that Mr Pope's propensity to vacillate and vary his testamentary wishes gave cause to pause “both when assessing whether the oral instructions given by Mr Pope on 16 May can be taken as being his final testamentary intentions and his subsequent expressed reservations about his instructions that excluded Ms Sullivan.” The court concluded that the expressions of doubt communicated by Mr Pope to Mr Baldwin regarding whether he should exclude Ms Sullivan from his will precluded the court from being satisfied that Mr Pope's statements to his lawyer on 16 May represented his settled testamentary intentions. Accordingly, the file note could not be validated under section 14 as a codicil to the will. The application was declined. ¢ A new anti-money laundering Identity Verification Code of Practice came into force on 1 July. Internal Affairs Minister, the Hon Brooke Van Velden and Associate Justice Minister, the Hon Nicole McKee said that the new code would make it easier for businesses to check people's identities in ways that were safe, sensible and proportionate to risk. “In particular, it will make it easier for elderly and disabled New Zealanders to use SuperGold Cards and Total Mobility Cards as secondary ID. While following the Code is not mandatory, it provides a safe harbour for businesses that apply it correctly.” Other changes included adding officers of the Māori Land Court to the list of trusted referees, allowing more flexibility for reliable overseas government sources of identity verification and endorsing standardised exceptions processes. 1 July also marked the day on which the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) assumed responsibility as the sole AML/CFT regulator. On the same day, the DIA released 23 new and updated anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism guidance updates, including guides to risk assessment, evaluating country risk, wire transfers and prescribed transaction reporting, and a practice note for non-bank financial institutions. NEWS l NEWS l NEWS New identify verification Code of Practice as part of measures to combat money laundering.
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