Public consultation is now closed
Public consultation on our proposed fees and charges reform for key services was open for feedback from 20 February to 8 May 2024.
The proposed fees and charges reform focuses on the following key service areas:
- financial management
- deceased estates
- trust administration.
The objective of the proposed reform is to:
- adjust fees
- simplify fee structures to make them easier to understand.
To inform public discussion, we developed a public consultation paper. The paper detailed fee reform options for financial management, deceased estates and trust administration.
To learn more, see Queensland Public Trustee: Fees and charges for key services – public consultation paper.
There were no proposed changes to our free Will-making services or Community Service Obligations. However, the consultation welcomed community feedback on these topics for future consideration.
To allow stakeholders have their say on the reform options, we consulted across Queensland. We sought feedback from:
- all Queenslanders
- customers
- government and non-government.
We received more than 190 responses over the consultation period. We acknowledge and thank those who have contributed to the consultation. Your views and feedback are greatly valued.
Next steps
The Queensland Government will consider our fee reform proposals. This marks a crucial step towards enhancing confidence in our fees and charges and meeting key recommendations related to their review.
Following Queensland Government's decision on any changes to our fees and charges framework, we will provide updates about the timing of any fee changes.
We will make any changes to financial administration fees and charges first. We will then make changes to trust and deceased estates fees and charges.
About the proposed reform
Queensland Public Trustee is proposing to reform its fees and charges for the following key services:
- financial management
- deceased estates
- trust administration.
The objectives of Queensland Public Trustee’s proposed fees and charges reform are to:
- Take all practical steps to ensure that customers pay no more in fees than what it costs to provide the service.
- Ensure any fee increases consider both social implications. This includes cost-of-living challenges, and our long-term financial sustainability.
- Increase cost recovery from deceased estate administration, while ensuring that any transition to higher fees occurs gradually. This is to prevent a significant restriction of access for vulnerable customers
- Simplify our fee structures to make them easier to understand.
- Ensure that any subsidy provided to customers is a deliberate government decision. A decision that balances the public interest and the cost of community service obligation commitments.
The proposed fees and charges reform represents a significant step forward in our reform journey. It's aimed at transforming us into a contemporary, inclusive and people-inspired provider of state trustee services.
The proposed reforms build on many of the positive changes implemented over the past 4 years, starting with the Customers First Strategy. This includes changes to our governance framework, policies, practices, and fees and charges.
Our proposed fees and charges reform incorporated the findings and recommendations from:
- The Public Advocate’s report, Preserving the financial futures of vulnerable Queenslanders: A review of the Public Trustee fees, charges and practices (March 2021).
- The first major external review of the Queensland Public Trustee’s fees and charges framework in 20 years, released in October 2022. This external review was commissioned following the release of the Public Advocate report. It included extensive consultation with stakeholders.