Public Trustee and Guardian (ACT) 

Act: Public Trustee and Guardian Act 1985 (ACT).¹

Established: 1985.

Purpose: the Public Trustee and Guardian provides trustee services — estate administration, acting as executor, managing trusts — and separately acts as guardian or financial manager for people who lack the capacity to make their own decisions. It is the ACT's equivalent of NSW's NSW Trustee and Guardian, combining what some jurisdictions keep as two separate offices (a public trustee and a separate protective commissioner or guardianship body).

Powers conferred under the Act

As trustee, the Public Trustee and Guardian can be appointed executor of a will, administer trust funds, and act under an enduring power of attorney where nominated. As guardian or financial manager, it is typically appointed by an order of ACAT — it does not decide for itself that someone needs a guardian or manager; that determination is ACAT's, made under ACAT's own guardianship jurisdiction.¹ The Public Trustee and Guardian also administers the ACT's unclaimed-monies scheme.

Is it a prosecuting authority?

No. The Public Trustee and Guardian manages property, trusts and personal welfare decisions for people appointed to its care; it has no role prosecuting offences.

No specific leading case on the Public Trustee and Guardian's functions is cited here.

Self-check

• Have I distinguished the trustee-services role (wills, estates, enduring powers of attorney) from the guardianship and financial-management role?
• Have I correctly stated that ACAT, not the Public Trustee and Guardian itself, makes the guardianship or financial-management appointment?
• Have I avoided assuming the ACT splits trustee and guardianship functions across two bodies the way some jurisdictions historically did?