public trustee

The public trustee is an office established pursuant to national (and, if applicable, state or territory) statute, to act as a trustee, usually when a sum is required to be deposited as security by legislation, if courts remove another trustee, or for estates if 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 Edward Cephas John 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 Public Trust 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 had not 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 one-third 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, making it the first public trustee established in Australia. 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 and territories. United Kingdom and 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). Some 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. In England and Wales since 1994 the property of someone dying intestate vests in the public trustee until a grant of letters of administration is made to an administrator or administrators (prior to 1994 it vested in the President of the Family Division).