It has been reported that trustees Jeff Meltzer and Mike Whale asked Watson to sign away his powers to appoint and fire trustees of his shareholding.

Watson could not be reached for comment this week: trustee Jeff Meltzer is maintaining a firm “no comment” policy on the issue.

"This is a private matter," he told Good Returns. Watson, founded the company in the 1970s, and formed the family trust in 1984 as a way of preventing the company being taken over by overseas companies.

Watson and his wife, Shirley, have maintained the powers to appoint and dismiss trustees. However, Shirley gave her power to appoint trustees to the trustees earlier this year before her death. Gordon has been reluctant to relinquish his powers of appointment. It has been reported the other trustees have pushed for that to change, and have invoked other clauses in the trust deed to claim the power to appoint other trustees.

It is understood moves to reassure Fidelity’s network of more than 700 advisers that the shareholding row will not affect the day to day business are being made.

Chief executive Milton Jennings says: "we will sort this out pretty quickly."

Gordon, the board and the trustees are all united in wanting to keep the company New Zealand-owned, he said.

Fidelity’s recent annual report recorded a glowing result, of a record net profit of $7.4 million, up 43% on the previous year. Net new business grew by 12% for the year to June, a value of $12.3 million. Total in-force premiums grew from $66 million in 2004 to $76 million.