Tasmania’s Public Trustee is expanding its offices in Northern Tasmania.
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A government spokeswoman confirmed the Public Trustee was “looking to increase its physical presence outside of Hobart”.
“The Public Trustee is currently looking to relocate its Launceston office into a more prominent location,” she said.
“This will also provide the opportunity to increase its staff numbers in Launceston.”
She said as part of the expansion a leadership position would be transferred from Hobart to Launceston.
As well, an administrative position planned for Hobart would now be advertised for Launceston.
The Public Trustee is an independent and impartial body set up to act on behalf of Tasmanians in areas including preparing wills, estate planning and enduring powers of attorney and guardianship.
Attorney-General Elise Archer told recent government business enterprise hearings that the Public Trustee achieved an operating profit after tax of $772,000 in 2017-18.
She said for the second year in a row the organisation would pay a dividend to the government of $20,000 for the financial year ended June 30, 2018.
“The Public Trustee had an extensive program of work centred on product development, process improvement, and training and development of its staff,” Ms Archer said.
“Key projects include the redevelopment of sites in Launceston and Burnie to improve the branding and scale of the Public Trustee’s physical locations outside of Hobart.
“The public trustee also holds will writing days in regional areas of Tasmania and is progressing with its business development strategy of offering products and services to both public and private sector organisations.”
The work of the Public Trustee is increasing.
As at June 30, 2018, the Public Trustee managed the affairs of 784 community service represented person clients – an increase of 102 clients compared with the same period in 2017.
The community service obligation work amounted to just over half the matters administered by the Public Trustee.
Board chair Mark Scanlon told the GBE hearing that one of the organisation’s key strategies this year was “to look at the size of our business in Hobart versus the balance of the state”.
“We see an opportunity to start making our Launceston business a more sizeable organisation,” he said.
“Let us look at driving productivity and also driving growth in the other centres in Tasmania and that will mean new sites in Launceston and Burnie.”