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3 Yearly Review of Charitable Trust Deeds
All Trusts registered as Charities need to carry out a review of their deed and governance processes every three years to ensure they are fit for purpose. Nick Birdsey from District E has put together guides for Clubs and Districts and these have been checked by the MD Legal Counsel with input from the MD Treasurer. It is necessary for all Club and District Trusts to carry out this review and document that it has been done.
The reports and related documents are available on the Lions NZ Website.
1. Draft report for the Club Trustees. The aim is to compare the existing Trust Deed (Attached as "Deed A") with the replacement Trust Deed from the website, and to explain various provisions to help the club trustees "get a handle" on how the trust works.
2.The second document is Deed A, which is the current Trust Deed. See inserted handwritten numbers in this document which match the numbered points in the Report (the numbered points start in Para 5 of the Report).
3. The third document is the replacement trust deed which is available on the Lions NZ website, Deed B. The numbered points in the Report have also been inserted with a ] bracket behind them, e.g. 5] etc.
There is a point regarding clause 7.4 in Deed B, which is about the Trustee duty regarding financial reporting and which has arisen since the latest website Deed was last revised. This covers putting the express power to seek a review of the trust financial records (as well as the power to have the records audited), into the (District and Club) Trust Deeds themselves. The idea of a review was to provide an express course that the trustees thought may be prudent in certain circumstances, that required less "burden" of work (and professional cost) than a formal audit, but still provided a measure of "third party review" comfort.
See paragraph 12 of the Report. The power to seek a review in addition to the audit aspect has been added in italics to clause 7.4 of the template deed. This change is not mandatory but is recommended if you wish to have reviews rather than audits.
Once the Trust has been signed by all trustees then a copy of the Trust deed signed by all needs to be sent to Charities Services. This can be done online. The form asks what changes have been made so that should be outlined briefly with clause numbers or if a whole new deed has been adopted then say so but identify the main changes. This copy of the document does not need to be certified when filing with Charities Services.
A certified copy then needs to be lodged with the Companies Office Register of Charitable Trusts.
This certification is by one trustee. The certification is handwritten on the copy and signed prior to saving and then uploading to their website. See note below.
The certificate should read “I certify that this is a correct copy of the Trust deed of the [insert full name of trust].” Signed xyz Trustee Dated x/x/2026.
NB I recommend that a tracked change version is included as a schedule (so you are lodging just one document) in the copy of the deed lodged, so that the Registrar can see the changes, as they need to know what they are.
If clubs need assistance, please refer to your District Legal Counsel initially and then the MD Legal Counsel if further help is required. With much appreciation to Nick Birdsey of District E for his work putting together the report and guides.
Alan Knowsley
MD Legal Council
EXPLANATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING FILE FOLDERS:-
1 MD Policies:- Documents
2 Constitution:- Template approved Club Constitution with NZ clauses added plus an explanation of the need for all incorporated societies to reregister a new constitution by 1 April 2026.
MD Constitution, Club and District constitutions can be located on the Incorporated Societies Website by searching under the name.
3 Trusts:- For tax saving it is recommended that each club has a charitable trust. It is not permitted by Lions International to change a club's constitution to register as a charity. Therefore the club should register as an incorporated society (if not already) and set up and register a charitable trust to run its projects and receive funds.
A draft deed and instructions are here along with other helpful templates.
4 Club Information:- General information for clubs on Privacy, Raffles, Delegates and other topics.
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