As an administrator you are responsible for recording and reporting on the financial affairs of a protected person.

You must provide the Public Trustee with an annual statement of accounts by September each year.

This is a legal requirement.

Section 44 of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1993 requires an administrator to report to the Public Trustee annually regarding the receipts and payments, and the assets and liabilities of the protected person's estate.

If you fail to produce a statement of the accounts without a reasonable explanation you may be guilty of an offence under the Act with a fine of up to $5,000.

The statement of accounts must be in a form approved by the Public Trustee and be verified by a statutory declaration in our format. There are fees payable for the examination and regulatory audit of the statement of accounts. This can be paid from the protected person's estate. The current financial examination fee is available on our website at www.publictrustee.sa.gov.au/about-us/fees-and-charges/

If you are a newly appointed administrator, see Where to start - managing documentation for more about initial reporting requirements.

The following completed reports and documents must be lodged annually with the Public Trustee for review.

Not all documents will be applicable in every case.

  • Statement of receipts and payments from 1 July to 30 June
  • Assets and liabilities as at 30 June
  • Assets sheet (details of assets where applicable)
  • Worksheets of receipts and payments
  • Statutory declaration
  • All bank account statements
  • Term deposit statements (where applicable)
  • Share certificates (where applicable)
  • A copy of the mortgage statement (where applicable)
  • All other financial asset details (where applicable).

Use one of the following templates for your Annual Statement of Accounts

Use one of these templates for your Statutory Declaration

For more details about completing each of the required documents, see the Private Administrator's Guide.

Make sure you keep a copy of the full set of reports and other documents provided to the Public Trustee for your own records.

You may seek professional assistance (eg from an accountant or bookkeeper) in preparing the financial reports. Fees due to them may be paid from the protected person's estate.

Once completed, the full set of reports and other required documents can be emailed to: PT.RegulatoryTeam@sa.gov.au

They can also be posted to:

Regulatory Services
Public Trustee
GPO Box 1338
Adelaide SA 5001

If you need clarification on completing the statement of accounts, contact the Regulatory Services Team:

Phone: (08) 8463 7441
Email: PT.RegulatoryTeam@sa.gov.au

Once we receive your documents, they will be reviewed by a Public Trustee Financial Examiner.

A Financial Examiner’s role is to make sure:

  • you are fulfilling your role in accordance with the Act
  • your financial administration is benefiting the protected person

Once the accounts are examined, the Public Trustee will report this to SACAT.

There are fees payable for the examination and regulatory audit of the statement of accounts. This can be paid from the protected person's estate.

Not fulfilling your responsibilities

If we believe you are not reasonably fulfilling your responsibilities, we may recommend to SACAT that spending in specific areas be disallowed, or that action be taken against you.

This could mean a direction from SACAT to return monies to the protect person's estate.