Separated by distance, reunited by persistence
Sometimes time and distance separates clients from their whanau and their beneficiary entitlements. The Māori Trustee's Client Services Unit team goes the extra mile to contact our clients to let them know about their unclaimed money.
Since 1994 one of our clients had lived in North America and attempts to contact him had been unsuccessful. Over three months, and after sourcing five different contacts, eventually leading to our client's child, we finally located the client's contact details.
Once contacted the client's fond memories of growing up in Aotearoa and his heritage came flooding back, along with emotional recollections about his tipuna and whenua. This contrasted with our client's whanau's belief that the client wasn't interested in his whakapapa or whenua.
Thrilled at Māori Trustee's persistence in contacting him, our client asked us to pass on his contact details to his whanau and help him set up a whanau trust.
With Māori Trustee's help, a whanau reconnected and the distance between countries was overcome.