The Hodgman Liberal Government and the Board of the Public Trustee have approved a substantial reduction of fees charged by the Public Trustee for all Represented Persons with assets of less than $100,000.
The proposal endorsed by the Government and the Public Trustee also completely eliminates commissions currently paid by these clients if they have assets of less than $10,000.
The Public Trustee has traditionally had one of the highest fee structures for Community Service Obligation (CSO) Represented Persons – people with assets less than $100,000 – compared to government operated public trustee organisations in other jurisdictions. This has particularly been the case for individuals at the lowest asset thresholds.
Tasmania will go from being the highest charging jurisdiction for many Represented Persons to now be among the lowest. This is a fantastic outcome for low-income clients of the Public Trustee, many of whom may be disadvantaged or living with disability and are Represented Persons under an order of the Guardianship and Administration Board.
Stakeholders and the Public Trustee had raised this as a concern with Governments for a number of years, prompting the Liberal Government in December 2014 to announce a review of the Public Trustee’s fees and commissions.
The review undertaken by Treasury in conjunction with the Public Trustee identified an option to reduce costs for CSO Represented Persons by eliminating capital commissions and monthly account fees, and by reducing income commissions.
The Treasurer Peter Gutwein, myself and the Board of the Public Trustee have agreed to adopt these recommendations but to further reduce fees for Represented Persons with assets under $10,000 by entirely eliminating the income commissions for those people.
As a result the changes to the Public Trustee’s fees for Represented Persons with assets under $100,000 will be:
The Government and the Public Trustee will jointly contribute to the cost of implementing the fee reduction, with the Government to increase the CSO funding to the Public Trustee by $250,000 from 2016-17. The balance of the cost of the fee reduction can be met from the Public Trustee’s operating budget.
Public Trustee CEO David Benbow said the outcome of the review was welcomed by the organisation.
“Our focus is on our clients and for many of the low-income earners and the disadvantaged in the community with whom we work, the review of our fee structure and acceptance of its recommendations will ensure meaningful outcomes for them,” Mr Benbow said.
“We thank the Liberal Government for supporting the outcomes of the review and for acting on the findings to ensure our clients can be treated on a more equitable basis.”