Children, family and inheritance — New Zealand

Names

A statutory declaration to Births, Deaths and Marriages — and a registry willing to refuse names it considers unacceptable.

Name changes are registered with the Registrar-General under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act. The registry publishes its refusals, which regularly attract international attention: names resembling official titles, names that are unreasonably long, or names without pronunciation are rejected.

Key points

In practice

• Register the change rather than relying on usage: passports require the registered name.
• For a child, obtain the consent of every guardian in writing.

Cost and coverage

Registry fees are modest.

Where to go

• Passports office for travel documents.
• Community Law Centres for assistance.

The general article: Names · Compare with another country

Adoption

The Adoption Act 1955 remains in force, almost unchanged, more than seventy years after it was passed. It predates the Human Rights Act, the Care of Children Act 2004 and civil unions, and the courts have had to read it consistently with modern law: in 2010 the High Court held that de facto couples can adopt jointly. Oranga Tamariki assesses applicants and the Family Court makes the order, which is full and irrevocable.

Whāngai is the heart of the New Zealand debate. In tikanga Māori, a child may be raised by grandparents or another relative in an arrangement that is open, known to everyone and permanent. It is not a secret and it does not erase the child's whakapapa. The 1955 Act cannot accommodate it: a whāngai child has no legal relationship with the people raising them unless the family goes through a Pākehā-style adoption that severs the original parentage, which is precisely what whāngai is not.

Closed adoption was the New Zealand norm for decades, with sealed records and amended birth certificates. The Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 opened access for adopted adults, and the volume of applications in its first years showed how much demand had been suppressed.

Domestic adoption of a newborn is now rare: birth parents who place a child usually choose the adoptive family themselves and expect ongoing contact, even though the Act makes no provision for enforcing it.

Same-sex couples: joint adoption became available to married same-sex couples with marriage equality in 2013; the Adoption Act 1955 has not otherwise been modernised, and unmarried couples remain in an awkward position.

Key points

In practice

• Contact Oranga Tamariki for an information session and to register interest.
• Complete the education programme and the social work assessment.
• Be approved and placed on the list; for intercountry adoption, be allocated to an approved country programme.
• After placement, file an application in the Family Court.
• Obtain the adoption order and the new birth certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Cost and coverage

Domestic adoption costs little beyond court filing fees. Intercountry adoption costs NZD 20,000 to 40,000. Paid parental leave is available to adoptive parents of a child under six on the same terms as birth parents.

Where to go

• Oranga Tamariki, Ministry for Children, adoption services
• Family Court of New Zealand
• Intercountry Adoption New Zealand
• Adoption Option and other support organisations
• Births, Deaths and Marriages for records and original birth certificates

Frequently asked questions

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Assisted reproduction

The Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 sets the framework. Established procedures may be performed without case-by-case approval; anything else requires approval from the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, advised by the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology. Donation is identifiable: donor details are held on a register by the Registrar-General, and a donor-conceived person may obtain them at 18, or earlier with consent. Public funding is allocated through the Clinical Priority Assessment Criteria, a points score that must reach a threshold.

The CPAC points system is the distinctive New Zealand feature and it surprises patients. Points reflect the cause of infertility, duration, age, BMI and smoking status; below the threshold there is no public treatment at all, not merely a longer wait.

Identifiable donation has been the rule since the HART Act, and New Zealand's experience is reassuring for countries debating it: donor numbers fell initially and then recovered, with a different profile of donor — older, more often with children of their own.

Surrogacy exposes the age of the surrounding law. An arrangement approved by ECART still requires the intended parents to adopt their own child under the Adoption Act 1955, with the surrogate as the legal mother at birth. Reform has been recommended repeatedly.

Same-sex couples: access is open and both mothers are recognised under the Status of Children Act. Surrogacy must be altruistic and requires an adoption to transfer parentage.

Key points

In practice

• Get a GP referral to a fertility clinic and have the initial work-up done.
• Ask the clinic to calculate your CPAC score, which determines eligibility for public funding.
• If funded, join the waiting list; if not, consider a private cycle or wait and reassess.
• For donor treatment, complete the counselling required by law and register the donor's details.
• For surrogacy, expect an ECART application and, currently, an adoption to establish parentage.

Cost and coverage

A private cycle costs NZD 13,000 to 16,000 including drugs. Publicly funded patients receive up to two cycles at no cost once they meet the CPAC threshold. Egg freezing costs NZD 8,000 to 12,000 plus annual storage.

Where to go

• Fertility Associates, Fertility Plus and other clinics contracted to provide public treatment
• Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology, for approvals
• Registrar-General, for the HART register of donors
• Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, for funding criteria
• Fertility New Zealand, for patient support

Frequently asked questions

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Childcare

Twenty Hours ECE covers three- to five-year-olds, the Childcare Subsidy helps lower-income families, and FamilyBoost refunds part of the fees paid by middle-income households.

Early childhood education in New Zealand is licensed by the Ministry of Education and funded through several channels. Twenty Hours ECE provides twenty funded hours a week for children aged three to five at participating services. The Childcare Subsidy, administered by Work and Income, supports lower-income families with children under five. FamilyBoost, introduced in 2024, refunds a share of childcare fees for households below an income threshold. Kōhanga reo, Māori-language immersion services, form a distinct and significant part of the system.

The optional charge is the New Zealand quirk. A service offering 20 Hours ECE cannot require a fee for those hours, but it can request an optional charge for extras. In practice many families pay it, so compare services on the total weekly invoice rather than on the advertised funded hours.

Kōhanga reo are more than language services: they are whānau-led, with families expected to participate. For Māori families and for others committed to te reo, they are a distinct option with its own funding and governance.

Home-based care, with a licensed educator looking after a small number of children, suits shift workers and rural families and attracts the same funding as centres. It is consistently under-considered by parents who think only of centres.

Key points

In practice

• Enrol early: popular services in Auckland and Wellington have long waiting lists.
• Check whether the service offers 20 Hours ECE and what optional charges it adds on top.
• Apply to Work and Income for the Childcare Subsidy if your income may qualify.
• Register for FamilyBoost and keep your invoices, since the refund is claimed on the fees you paid.
• Read the Education Review Office report, which is published for every licensed service.

Cost and coverage

Full-time care for an under-three commonly costs NZD 250 to 400 a week before subsidies, more in Auckland. From age three, 20 Hours ECE removes a large part of that, leaving optional charges. The Childcare Subsidy and FamilyBoost reduce the remainder for eligible households.

Where to go

• Ministry of Education, for licensing and the 20 Hours ECE scheme
• Work and Income, for the Childcare Subsidy
• Inland Revenue, for FamilyBoost claims
• Education Review Office, for published reports on each service
• Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, for Māori-language services

Frequently asked questions

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Step-families

A step-parent can be appointed a guardian by the court, alongside the existing guardians.

Care of children legislation allows the court to appoint an additional guardian, and a step-parent who is closely involved in the child's life is a typical applicant. Guardianship is shared, not transferred. A step-parent can also seek a parenting order for day-to-day care or contact. A child treated as a member of the family can claim against the estate, but is not an automatic heir on intestacy.

New Zealand allows a court to appoint an additional guardian — commonly a step-parent — alongside the existing guardians, without displacing anyone. That is the practical solution for a step-family, and it gives authority over the significant decisions: schooling, medical treatment, where the child lives, and travel. Adoption law, by contrast, dates from 1955 and is widely regarded as overdue for reform.

Key points

In practice

• Applying for additional guardianship is usually simpler and quicker than adoption.
• Family dispute resolution is required before most parenting order applications.
• Make a will naming stepchildren if you intend to provide for them.
• Written authority from the parent covers school and medical consent in the meantime.

Cost and coverage

Family Court filing fees are modest, and the guardianship application can be made without a lawyer in straightforward cases.

Where to go

• Family Court, for guardianship and parenting orders.
• Family dispute resolution providers, subsidised.
• Community Law Centres, free advice.

Frequently asked questions

The general article: Step-families · Compare with another country