Public Trustee

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:56): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will government savings measures applied to Public Trustee services make it harder for people to access affordable will and power of attorney services, and what flow-on costs are anticipated from inaccurate or incomplete wills as a result of the reduced services?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:56): I thank the member for the question because we have announced an important initiative in relation to the Public Trustee, that is, that it resume its core business of operating to provide for services for the poor and vulnerable.

For those who are not in that category—that is, who are able to pay for their own wills and not have that service—two things have happened; one is that the Law Society has provided a list to the Public Trustee to ensure that anyone who wishes to in future have that service but who are able to actually access a legal adviser will have a list to refer to.

Bear in mind that even though a free will historically is prepared by the Public Trustee, that does not mean that you get a free distribution of the estate. In fact, the Public Trustee takes a very significant percentage of that estate upon the death of a party. So it is not a free service, but the provision of the will part of it is—you get a bit of a kick at the end.

We have determined that that is a service, as I say, that should no longer be provided by the Public Trustee, and it has been welcomed, I think, generally. To ensure that there is an orderly transfer for those who had that service, a variation to the will or codicil has been offered for three months up to 30 June for anyone who wishes to change their will, collect their own. That would be provided for as well as, as I say, the additional referral service.

We don't see there being any impediment to those who previously utilised that service. I expect for small or moderate estates, in fact, we will have ultimately saved them a lot of money rather than them having to pay a significant percentage of their estate, as operates under the Public Trustee regime.