When Margaret decided to take advantage of NSW Trustee and Guardian's free will service, she had no reason to suspect the decision would ultimately cost her son $56,000 in estate administration fees. Like many Australians on government pensions eligible for the scheme, she accepted the offer to have her will drafted without charge, not fully grasping the financial trap waiting at the other end.
The NSW Trustee and Guardian does not charge for drafting wills if a person is on full Centrelink Age Pension, but the fees charged by the agency to administer the estate are significantly higher than a lawyer's charge for obtaining a grant of probate. What begins as a cost-saving measure becomes, in many cases, an expensive decision for families.
The core issue lies in how the agency structures its business. NSW Trustee and Guardian's fees to administer a deceased estate are prescribed and regulated under the NSW Trustee and Guardian Act 2009 and the NSW Trustee and Guardian Regulation 2017, with fees deducted from the estate based on the value of the assets. When families appoint the agency as executor during the will-drafting process, they rarely understand what those deductions will total.
The disclosure gap
The problem is compounded by inadequate disclosure. Many people using the free service do not grasp the full extent of fees they will incur after death, particularly when the agency is appointed as executor. Whilst the preparation of a will may be free, the fees charged to administer an estate after death may be surprising, and the inheritance may be significantly reduced by the trustee's commission. The upfront savings, often just a few hundred dollars, are easily dwarfed by the administration fees that follow.
This is not a one-off problem. Although NSW Trustee and Guardian provides wills for a lower upfront fee, the agency charges a significantly higher set of fees that come out of the estate after death, and charges for obtaining a grant of probate and administration of the estate by way of a percentage of the estate assets, as well as estate management, account keeping, and investing estate assets in NSW Trustee and Guardian investment funds. The percentage-based structure creates an incentive to charge more on larger estates.
Comparison with private lawyers reveals the disparity. In NSW, the fees a solicitor can charge for obtaining a grant of probate are fixed by state government regulations based on the gross value of the estate assets. These regulated fees provide transparency and predictability. In contrast, the NSW Trustee and Guardian's percentage-based charges can accumulate rapidly, particularly for middle-income estates.
A systemic pattern
The problem extends beyond individual cases. Growing concerns about the commercial model of public trustees have prompted several government-led inquiries into how they manage fees, operations, and communications with clients, and in NSW fees and charges are regularly reviewed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. Yet despite oversight, families continue to be caught unaware.
For vulnerable people without family members to act as executors, the NSW Trustee and Guardian serves a genuine function. But for those with estate assets of significant value, appointing a private executor or engaging a lawyer to handle probate often proves more economical. The agency's business model, which relies on estate administration fees as a revenue source, creates a structural misalignment between the interests of families and the interests of the organisation.
State regulation of the agency's fees occurs, but the percentage-based structure remains, and the public disclosure of likely costs at the point of will-drafting remains insufficient. Families face a choice: accept lower upfront costs and potentially higher backend fees, or decline the free service and hire a lawyer privately.
For those considering the free will service offered by NSW Trustee and Guardian, the lesson is clear. Always ask the hard questions: What will it cost to administer the estate if this agency is named as executor? What would a private lawyer charge? The NSW Trustee and Guardian's fee structure is publicly listed, but without prompting, many Australians will never look. The result is that a decision made in good faith to save money ends up costing thousands.