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Filing Your Application

All New Zealand probate applications are filed at the Wellington High Court, regardless of where the deceased lived or where the estate assets are located. Invercargill does have a High Court registry that sits on circuit for other matters, but probate is not filed locally — all NZ probate applications go to the Wellington High Court probate registry. Southland executors do not need a local lawyer; Simply Probate prepares the complete application remotely and you file at Wellington by post.

Common Estate Types in Invercargill and Southland

Southland sheep, beef, and deer farming estates dominate the local probate landscape. Large-scale pastoral stations are common, often with significant farm machinery, livestock, and complex ownership structures through trusts or companies. Southland is also New Zealand's fastest-growing dairy region after Waikato, so dairy farming estates — including Fonterra shares for supply shareholders — are increasingly common in Invercargill area estates.

Fishing quota (Individual Fishing Quota / IFQ and Annual Catch Entitlement / ACE) is a distinctive Invercargill estate asset. Invercargill and Bluff are major South Island fishing ports. Fishing quota shares are personal property — they are a form of property right that can be bought, sold, and transferred. If the deceased held fishing quota personally, the quota is an estate asset that passes under the grant of probate. The Quota Management System requires the executor to deal with the quota transfer through the Ministry for Primary Industries process, and a grant of probate is a prerequisite.

Bluff oyster fishing interests are specific to this region. Bluff oyster licences and catch entitlements are property interests that may form part of an estate, subject to the licensing regime that governs them.

Eastern Southland cropping (grain and seed crops) and Gore and Winton rural properties are also common estate assets in this area.

Local Considerations for Southland Estates

A common point of confusion in Southland farming estates is the distinction between the farm trust and the deceased's personal estate. Many Southland farming families operate through family trusts, which hold the farmland and assets. Trust property belongs to the trust, not to the deceased personally — so it does not form part of the estate and does not go through probate. What goes through probate is what the deceased personally owned: shares in a farm company, personal bank accounts, personal farm machinery held in their own name, or any land held personally.

Farm machinery and livestock are personal property. They do not require a separate probate application, but probate may still be required to establish the executor's authority to deal with the estate generally — which then covers personal property alongside real property. IFQ quota shares are also personal property, dealt with in the schedule of personal property accompanying the probate application.