About us

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Key facts

Public Trust is a Crown Entity whose independence is guaranteed under the Public Trust Act 2001. Our Maori name, Te Tari Tiaki Iwi, translates as `the organisation that takes care of people'.

Established in 1873 to provide independent and reliable trustee services, today Public Trust has 492 staff operating from 28 customer centres and a number of part time offices looking after the interests of 251,000 New Zealanders.

We provide services to three core customer markets...

Personal

  • Our advisers and lawyers help more New Zealanders write their Wills every year than anyone else. We're responsible for writing around 25,000 Wills annually.
  • We look after more estates than any other organisation - around 6,000 each year.
  • We manage more than 4,000 family trusts.
  • Our total mortgage lending, including commercial lending, is around $215 million.
  • We administer or manage approximately $3.9 billion in assets, including around $1.2 billion in investment funds.
  • We manage the financial matters of more than 2,000 customers as their attorney, including 700 people who are incapacitated and unable to manage their own affairs.

Business

  • We manage over 440 charitable trusts, comprising around $370 million in assets between them. These charitable trusts generate funding for interests as diverse as science, medicine, disability and agriculture.
  • We manage around 30 farms covering 19,600 hectares, including Smedley Station - New Zealand's largest training farm.
  • Over 340 private training establishments now use our Fee Protect service. Since its launch, Fee Protect has safeguarded almost $1 billion of fees for more than 200,000 students.

Corporate

  • Corporate Trustee Services is a division of Public Trust serving the corporate and business market. It has approximately $35 billion under supervision on behalf of investors.
  • Corporate Trustee Services offers some of Australasia's best known institutions a full range of trustee services across a diverse range of products, covering some 200 appointments in the securities and financial markets.