WA’s Public Trustee has been described as “partly effective”. 

Western Australia’s Public Trustee controls about $1.4 billion of assets on behalf of some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

It was created to help manage the financial affairs of people who could not do so themselves, and administer the estates of people who have died.

But WA's auditor-general Caroline Spencer has called for an urgent review, saying that the Trustee’s current model, by which it largely funds itself, means some clients are subsidising the fees of others who cannot pay.

“This model delivers an inherent incentive to maximise fees from clients regarded by the Public Trustee as having the capacity to pay, but who by community standards would not be considered wealthy,” Ms Spencer said.

“This is not appropriate.

“While people should pay for the services they receive, it is not fair for a public institution entrusted to act in their best interests to have them unknowingly subsidise others.”

She called on the state government to consider funding the agency itself, and bring in some  transparency requirements.

“This enables scrutiny by Treasury and parliamentary committees, and increases oversight for an entity that currently has relatively little and holds a sizeable amount of other people's money,” she said.

The Trustee charges fees in accordance with a published schedule, but Ms Spencer said “clients will not know what fees they have been charged unless they ask, and some are charged considerable fees for little work”.

The audit found fees were not adjusted unless clients complained, which “can place considerable responsibility on its vulnerable clients”.

“Actively waiting and reducing fees to reflect actual work would better align with the Public Trustee's stated fee for service approach and promote equity and value for money for individual clients,” the report found.

Additionally, the report says clients were not provided a “clear and easy to understand” explanation of the fees, as the detailed schedule was “written in formal and complex language”.

It also criticised the fact that “trust clients are not regularly told what fees they have been charged and why”, and only found out when the information was requested. 

“This reflects the Public Trustee's concern that financial statements in the wrong hands increase the risk of clients being financially exploited,” the report found.

“However, not all clients face this risk, and the approach reduces transparency of charges for all trust clients.

“Some clients remain with the Public Trustee for long periods, during which they may not know what funds they have or the fees they have paid.”

The auditor-general made five recommendations - calling on the Public Trustee to consider ways to assess whether full fees reflect the work on a trust and should be charged, and to review and improve the communication of trust fees.

The audit recommended the Department of Treasury review the “appropriateness and transparency” of the current fees and funding model. The WA Government says it has committed to this recommendation.

The Public Trustee says a review on fees and charges carried out in 2020, found them to be “fair, reasonable and appropriate in most circumstances”.

“The Public Trustee believes its clients receive a quality service at an affordable price,” it said. 

“The Public Trustee will fully co-operate with any planned review by the Department of Treasury to assess the appropriateness of its self-funding model and related governance arrangements.”

WA Attorney-General John Quigley says he welcomes the report, and the opportunity to improve. 

“I am pleased Treasury is already making arrangements to provide the government with options to improve equity and value-for-money for the Public Trustee's clients,” he said.

“The government will carefully consider Treasury's findings.”