The office of the Public Trustee was established in 1881 and is constituted under the provisions of the Public Trustee Act 1995. The Public Trustee is a statutory officer pursuant to the Public Trustee Act 1995.
The Public Trustee is a body corporate with the powers of a natural person. The role of the Public Trustee is to provide financial and administrative services to the people of South Australia.
The Public Trustee helps those who cannot manage their own affairs, and those who have trusted us to assist them.
The Public Trustee’s Strategic Plan includes the following objectives:
- People - We will be a workplace of choice. Our staff will be engaged in our culture, and feel empowered by leaders to develop their skills and capabilities.
- Customer Experience - We will engage with our customers to understand their needs, and deliver a consistently high quality service, treating them with empathy and respect.
- Continuous Business Improvement - Our environment will encourage staff to engage with business improvement ideas and initiatives, to find new ways to work and deliver excellent service to our customers.
- Governance & Financial Stability- We will be supported by good governance that effectively manages critical risk. Our fees and charges will be competitive, whilst enabling us to meet our agreed fiscal targets.
Government objective | Public Trustee Key Objective |
---|---|
Identifying new ways to work and deliver excellent service to the community we serve. | People Flexibility and work-life balance
Workload
Training
Recognition
Communication
|
Continuous Business Improvement
| |
Commitment to providing better services to South Australians and working to protect the vulnerable. | Customer Experience
|
Effectively manage risk and contribute to a strong economy for South Australia. | Governance & Financial Sustainability
|
Agency Program – Writing Wills & Powers of Attorney
Free Will and power of attorney drafting services are provided for all South Australians who nominate the Public Trustee as their executor, attorney or substitute attorney.
Activity Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
---|---|---|
New Wills | 640 | 684 |
Revised Wills | 956 | 1055 |
New & revised power of attorney documents | 391 | 456 |
Visits to people in their homes or other facilities to prepare Wills | 232 | 202 |
Effectiveness/Efficiency Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
Customer satisfaction rating out of 5 with Will making services | 4.82 | 4.78 |
Wills customers who would recommend the Public Trustee | 94% | 93% |
Deceased Estates and Trusts Administration
The Public Trustee acts as executor of an estate where named executor in the Will, or as administrator when a person dies intestate (without a Will).
The Public Trustee manages court-awarded trusts, trusts established by a Will and trusts under deed for minors, as well as perpetual charitable and scholarship trusts.
Activity Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
---|---|---|
Administration of new estates | 653 | 532 |
Administration of new trusts | 125 | 118 |
Finalised deceased estates | 681 | 661 |
Finalised trusts | 175 | 196 |
Effectiveness/Efficiency Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
Customer satisfaction rating out of 5 with deceased estate administration services | 3.74 | 3.9 |
Deceased estate administration customers who would recommend the Public Trustee | 56% | 65% |
Personal Financial Administration
The Public Trustee can be appointed legally responsible for making all, or some, of a person’s financial and legal decisions where that person has lost capacity to do so.
Activity Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
---|---|---|
Appointed administrator or manager of financial and legal affairs – new customers | 468 | 500 |
Active financial administrations as at 30 June | 4 414 | 4 324 |
Effectiveness/Efficiency Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
Customer satisfaction rating out of 5 by customers and their representatives | 3.83 | 4.03 |
Personal financial administration customers who would recommend the Public Trustee | 78% | 83% |
Litigation Guardian
The Public Trustee may be appointed by a Court to act as ‘Next friend’ for customers unable to conduct their own legal proceedings.
Activity Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
---|---|---|
Appointed as litigation guardian – new customers | 34 | 27 |
Matters on hand at 30 June | 87 | 62 |
Effectiveness/Efficiency Indicators | ||
Customer satisfaction data not collected due to small sample size |
Monitoring Private Financial Administrators and Managers
The Public Trustee is required to annually examine and report on activities of private financial administrators and managers appointed by SACAT and the courts.
Activity Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
---|---|---|
Review of financial statements of private administrators, managers and executors | 1 828 | 1 773 |
Matters referred to SACAT for non-compliance with reporting requirements | 142 | 90 |
Information sessions held for newly appointed administrators to explain their responsibilities | 15 | 14 |
Effectiveness/Efficiency Indicators | 2017-18 | 2016-17 |
Feedback from information sessions | Excellent/very good | Excellent/very good |
- Public Trustee Act 1995
Under the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Public Trustee Act 1995, the Public Trustee may act as a trustee, executor of a Will, administrator of an estate (whether or not of a deceased person), manager, receiver, committee, curator, guardian, next friend, agent, attorney, or stakeholder.
Other Acts that form the basis of how, and which services the Public Trustee delivers to customers are as follows:
- Administration and Probate Act 1919;
- Aged and Infirm Persons’ Property Act 1940;
- Family Relationships Act 1975;
- Guardianship and Administration Act 1993;
- Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1972;
- Legal Practitioners Act 1981;
- Powers of Attorney and Agency Act 1984;
- South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013;
- Trustee Act 1936;
- Wills Act 1936.
The Public Trustee is a business unit of the South Australian Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) and as such complies with AGD policies. The Public Trustee employees are employees of the AGD.
The Public Trustee works closely with the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) when SACAT appoints the Public Trustee to administer the personal financial and/or legal affairs of people who are unable to manage their own affairs. At times, the Public Trustee works with the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) when there are mutual customers i.e. OPA as guardian and the Public Trustee as financial administrator.
Program name | Result of the program |
---|---|
Jobs4Youth | One employee successfully completed the Jobs4Youth Program in 2017-18 and has since been offered further employment at the Public Trustee. |
Graduate Program | Two employees have commenced the graduate program during 2017-18 and are currently working through the program’s requirements. |
Performance management and development system | Assessment of effectiveness and efficiency |
---|---|
Performance Review and Development Plans |
During 2017-18, 72% of the Public Trustee staff completed Performance Review and Development Plans. As at 30 June 2018, 95% of employees had a development plan and performance review discussions. |
During 2017-18 the Public Trustee continued use of AGD’s online performance and learning platform. | The performance cycle requires employees and managers to set clear performance expectations (at least annually) and hold face to face reviews quarterly. |
Program name and brief description | Effectiveness |
---|---|
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) | All staff have access to a confidential Employee Assistance Program, offering a counselling service to support and assist staff with both professional and personal issues. |
AGD Health and Safety Committee | The Public Trustee has manager and employee representation on this committee, which provides a consultative forum to support and continuously improve work, health, safety and wellbeing systems and practices. |
Work health and safety Inspections | As part of the commitment to the safety of employees, six-monthly inspections are conducted to identify any hazards or risks with corrective action taken as needed. |
The Public Trustee Staff Culture & Wellbeing Initiatives | Staff are encouraged to participate in a range of social and wellbeing initiatives. As part of this, the Public Trustee staff raise funds to give back to the community through specially selected local charities and organisations. |
Work health and safety and return to work performance
Work health and safety and return to work performance statistics for the Public Trustee are included in the Attorney-General’s Department Annual Report.
Nil. Data for the past five years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept
Strategies implemented to control and prevent fraud
In September 2017, the Independent Commissioner against Corruption released his report to Parliament on the Evaluation of the Practices, Policies and Procedures of the Public Trustee to assist in preventing or minimising corruption, misconduct and maladministration in public administration.
A set of 19 recommendations were made and the Public Trustee has developed actions and timelines to implement each of them. The following actions have been completed:
- establishing a quality control position and commencing quality control audits;
- undertaking an extensive staff engagement program (staff forums, increased communication, wellbeing and culture improvement initiatives);
- establishing a Workplace Consultative Committee;
- reviewing, simplifying and consolidating procedures (intranet, hyperlinks);
- auditing a sample of high risk/high complexity files (representing each operational aspect of the organisation);
- finalising the ICT Strategic Plan and work plan, to improve duplicate entry, recording approvals, and scanning invoices;
- engaging a procurement specialist to manage contracts, and undertake business critical procurements;
- reviewing storage, collection and security practices;
- developing a data breach and privacy policy;
- improving initial customer contact practices;
- reviewing and implementing improved storage practices in relation to real estate/valuation information;
- developing a plan to address key findings from the employee culture and well-being report (including measures of success).
The Public Trustee has an Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC) that endorses an annual internal audit plan. The internal audit plan is delivered by an independent auditing firm. During the year, the following internal audits were undertaken to assist fraud risk management;
- Fraud and corruption control audit
- Review of compliance against the fraud and corruption policy
- Data analytics testing to assist in fraud detection.
Other actions to reduce the risk of fraud included:
- Providing compliance certificates for investment activity to the Funds Management Forum and Investment Advisory committee;
- Ensuring delegated authorities approve wages and overtime, and review material expenditure against delegated authorities; and
- Ongoing monitoring of suspense account levels to ensure appropriate action is undertaken to address variances.
There were no occasions on which public interest information has been disclosed to a responsible officer of the agency under the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1993.
Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept
Executive classification | Number of executives |
---|---|
SAES1 | 2 |
SAES2 | 1 |
Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept
The Office of the Commissioner of Public Sector Employment has a data dashboard for further information on the breakdown of executive gender, salary and tenure by agency.
The following is a summary of external consultants that have been engaged by the agency, the nature of work undertaken and the total cost of the work undertaken.
Consultancies below $10,000 each | ||
---|---|---|
Tasman Human Resource Consulting | Human Resource Operations Review | $8 096 |
Consultancies above $10,000 each | ||
Mercer Investments (Aust) Ltd | Customer Investment Tool Model Review | $13 200 |
Total of all consultancies | $21 296 |
See also the Consolidated Financial Report of the Department of Treasury and Finance http://treasury.sa.gov.au/ for total value of consultancy contracts across the SA Public Sector.
The following is a summary of external contractors that have been engaged by the agency, the nature of work undertaken and the total cost.
Contractor | Purpose | Value |
---|---|---|
Rawsons Electrical Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $670 |
Engie Fire Services Aust Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $1 029 |
Interpreting & Translating Centre | Translating Services | $1 070 |
Nijan Consulting | HR Advice | $1 276 |
SA Commercial Blinds Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $1 496 |
KWP! Advertising Pty Ltd | Web Development | $2 423 |
Tyrone Electrical Services Pty Ltd | Electrical Contractor | $2 568 |
Mediation Ers Pty Ltd | Human Resource Services | $3 432 |
Zip Heaters Aust Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $3 620 |
Chubb Fire & Security Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $3 646 |
Dorma Australia Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $5 392 |
Express Training Connections | Training | $7 080 |
Pinnacle Workplace Consultants | HR Workplace Assessments | $7 719 |
Cummins Hybrid Pty Ltd | Marketing Services | $7 783 |
Modis Staffing Pty Ltd | Temp Staff Agency | $9 053 |
SA Security Monitoring Pty Ltd | Security Services | $9 538 |
Scan Conversion Services Pty Ltd | Scanning Services | $10 425 |
Rentokil Initial Pty Ltd | Building Maintenance | $14 306 |
Bonita Kennedy | Records Management | $15 620 |
Swood Financial Solutions Pty Ltd | IT Contract Work | $16 685 |
Media Edge Cia Pty Ltd | Advertising Services | $21 250 |
Bold It Pty Ltd | Recruitment Assistance | $22 627 |
Wavemaker Australia Pty Ltd | Advertising Services | $30 073 |
KPMG Forensic Pty Ltd | Corporate Strategy | $32 340 |
Ernst & Young | Customer Investment Model Review and Enhancements | $40 315 |
Randstad Pty Ltd | Temp Staff Agency | $44 803 |
Careerlink People Solutions | Temp Staff Agency | $47 696 |
Pricewaterhouse Coopers | Internal Audit and Risk Management Services | $49 858 |
Hays Specialist Recruitment Pty Ltd | Temp Staff Agency | $79 507 |
Deloitte Risk Advisory Pty Ltd | Internal Audit and Risk Management Services | $260 308 |
Total | $753 608 |
Data is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept
The details of all South Australian Government-awarded contracts for goods, services, and works are displayed on the SA Tenders and Contracts website here.
The website also provides details of across government contracts here.
Following is a brief summary of the overall financial position of the agency. Full audited Financial Statements for 2017-18 are attached to this report.
The Public Trustee achieved an operating surplus before income tax equivalents of $1.175m compared to a budgeted operating surplus of $425 000.
2017-18 Summary of Comprehensive Income
Actual 2017-18 $000s | Budget 2017-18 $000s | Actual 2016-17 $000s | |
---|---|---|---|
Total Income | 24 804 | 23 994 | 23 334 |
Total Expenses | 23 629 | 23 569 | 22 736 |
Profit before Income Tax Equivalent Payments | 1 175 | 425 | 598 |
Income Tax Equivalent Payments | 352 | 127 | 179 |
During 2017/18, a dividend of $899,000 was paid (2016/17 $57,000).
The following items contributed to the favourable result as at 30 June 2018:
- Revenue was 3.4% ($810 000) higher than budget. Favourable variances to budget of $548 000 investment revenue; management fees from Common Funds $206 000 and;
- sundry income $202 000 offset by an unfavourable budget variance in fees and charges of $146 000.
- Expenditure was 0.2% ($60 000) higher than budget. The slightly higher expenditure can be attributed to unbudgeted long service leave liabilities transferred from other agencies during the year.
Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/attorney-general-s-dept
Other financial information
Customer Investments
2017-18 was a positive year for the Public Trustee’s investment strategies. All investment options had positive returns, with growth-orientated strategies performing particularly well. Investment strategies with a higher weighting to shares and unlisted assets, such as property and infrastructure were the best performers.
The Public Trustee’s investment returns ranged from 1.79% for Cash to 13.62% for Equities, net of fees. All Standard Investment Strategies outperformed their respective industry benchmarks over 1, 3 and 5 years. Five year returns stand at 2.33% for Cash to 11.84% for Equities, net of fees. The investment returns demonstrate that the long-term performance has been strong, stable and continues to exceed benchmarks.
During the financial year, the Public Trustee made new investments in specialist global small companies and emerging markets funds. These new investments will provide additional diversification benefits and are expected to generate capital growth over the long term.
Under the Public Corporations Act 1993, a Charter must be prepared for a Public Corporation and agreed between the Attorney-General and the Treasurer.
The Charter describes the reporting and accountability requirements and outlines objectives for invested customer funds, financial and other performance targets. It also sets out the responsibilities and the expectations of both the Public Trustee and the Government. The Charter is reviewed annually.