Everything about The Public Trustee totally explained
The
public trustee is an office established pursuant to national (and, where applicable, state or territory) statute, to act as a
trustee, usually where a sum is required to be deposited as security by
legislation, where courts remove another trustee, or for
estates where either no
executor is named by
will or the
testator elects to name the Public Trustee.
Origins
The first Public Trustee is that of
New Zealand; it was proposed by E.C. J. Stevens in 1870 due to the difficulty of finding reliable private trustees in the colony and adopted by Prime Minister
Julius Vogel who established the office of
Public Trustee (New Zealand) and installed Jonas Woodward as the world's first Public Trustee on
January 1,
1873. Initially it was a part time for position for one man, the government hadn't anticipated that much of the public would prefer to trust a bureaucrat with their estate - by the mid 20th century the New Zealand Public Trustee gained nearly 1/3rd of the estate market in the country, was undertaking many statutory duties beyond this and employed a staff of a thousand. meanwhile the idea was spreading, initially across the Tasman, where
South Australia established a Public trustee on the same model on
1 January 1881.
Other nations
The office of Public Trustee was adopted by several other countries of the
Commonwealth, including the
United Kingdom, (founded 1906), where it plays a far more limited role,
Sri Lanka,
Hong Kong,
Singapore, most
Canadian provinces and all
Australian states. The office also appears, in a different sense, in some states of the
United States.although this has declined to just under 20 percent.
Australia
There is a public trustee in each state and territory of
Australia and a similar national position exists under
English law. The public trustee primarily performs the role of trustee of deceased's estates where no executor is appointed, or the executor declines to act (and no other person is appropriate). Most public trustees also provide a free or inexpensive service for drawing
wills (receiving remuneration upon administering the estate). The public trustees also manage the estates of infants (such as in cases where they receive a damages settlement), prisoners, and others under a
disability (legal or otherwise), when required. The public trustee may also act as trustee of unclaimed property in some states (Australia).
New Zealand
Although much reduced in size after a series of restructurings in the 1990s, and unsuccessful moves into
conveyancing,
unit trust like investments and other non-core business, which lead to large losses at the end of the decade, the office has now returned to profit. As at 2005 it held over 330,000 Wills and drafted over 21,000 wills per year, managed 3,500 residential properties, 400 charitable trusts and 30 farms, employing 450 people at 35 offices.
Public Trust (New Zealand) was a corporation sole until 2001, when it was moved to a company-like structure called a 'crown entity'.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Public Trustee'.
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