A history of Perpetual Trust
The Perpetual Trustees Estate and Agency Company of New Zealand Limited was incorporated on 15 April 1884.
1884 was a difficult time to start a new business. The country was near the beginning of “The Long Depression” which lasted throughout the 1880s and most of the 1890s. The profit in the first year of operation was£1492, but this fell to £390 in 1886. But the company had a solid base, having acquired the goodwill of two Dunedin firms which had been established since 1862: Gillies, Street and Hislop, and Connell and Moodie. The principals of these firms were among the first Board of Directors.
Walter Hislop was appointed Perpetual’s first General Manager, a post he held until 1909. He was born in Kirknewton, Scotland and came with his parents to Dunedin in 1856. He joined the staff of Gillies and Street at the age of 13 and became a partner in 1877. He was a director of Perpetual Trustees and Chairman of the Board for a number of years retiring in 1912.
Another early director was Donald Reid, one of the original investors in the company, who also guided the company’s original Act through parliament. Mr Reid founded the stock and station business that became Reid Farmers, which in turn merged with PGG in 2001 to ultimately become part of PGG Wrightson.
Perpetual Trustees grew more strongly after the turn of the century, especially with the advent of the First World War. In the 1918 the company bought its first car. By 1920, the company administered over £3 million in assets and employed sixteen staff. Branches in Invercargill, Timaru and Christchurch were established during the 1920s.
While the 1930s were difficult times, Perpetual still generated profits and was in a strong position to grow when the economy picked up prior to the Second World War. The war years were busy, with the company active as an agent for men and women serving overseas. At the same time providing this service was made more difficult as up to two thirds of Perpetual’s staff were on active service. Fortunately all but two returned safely.
An important piece of legislation affecting the Company was The Trustee Act 1956 which included sections enabling Trustees and Trustee Companies to exercise many powers and discretions formally only allowed to the Public Trustee. In 1958 P.A.Y.E. tax introduced which added to the complexity of Perpetual’s role.
Expansion accelerated in the 1960s, with Auckland, the first North Island branch opened in 1968. But the 1970s were more difficult as the economy felt the full force of the oil shocks. In 1975 the company was placed under control of a statutory board and then in 1978 was taken over by AMP. A year later Perpetual bought its first computer.
In 1996 Pyne Gould Corporation bought the company, merging it with PGG Trust in 1998.
PGG Trust
The PGG Trust Department was established in 1934, so 2009 marks not only Perpetual Trust’s 125th anniversary, but also the 75th jubilee of PGG Trust. PGG had been involved in the trust business before this, but with the company directors taking on the trustee role in a personal capacity.
PGG Trust was built around the powerful base of the stock and station business of Pyne Gould Guinness, with the company part of a truly integrated range of services from PGG in livestock and wool sales, right through to farm financing, investments and trust and estate management. Perpetual Trust and what is now PGG Wrightson still share a common history and many mutual clients.
Today
Today Perpetual Trust employs a hundred people in seven branches, has over five thousand clients, administers almost $1 billion of assets for private clients, trusts and estates, manages over $250 million of managed funds and supervises more than $19 billion as corporate trustee.