Public Trustee to retire

Press, 5 December 1986, Page 33

Public Trustee to retire

Christchurch’s District Public Trustee, Mr Ken Balch, will retire this month after 42 years with the Public Trust Office. He has been the city’s Public Trustee for eight years and a half, and had previously worked in Invercargill, Gore, Greymouth, Wellington, and Lower Hutt. His work began during World War II when the office was careful to send two copies of its overseas mail, posted at a twoweek interval in case the ship carrying the first letter was sunk. In 1944, death duties were high — starting at just £5O — to help pay for the war effort, but Government policies have

gradually lessened their impact. The duties are now applied on estates that exceed $450,000. Of the 500 estates handled by the Christchurch office each year, only a handful are affected. Mr Balch said the Public Trust Office’s share of the total workload had remained steady at about 20 per cent all through his time with the office. The Christchurch office holds wills for more than 38,000 people living in the Christchurch area. It administers 1700 estates with a total value of more than $6O million. Mr Balch has been active in Rotary, the Executive Management Club, the Institute of Public Administration, and the Presbyterian Church. Mr Derry Tomlinson, who is now the Dunedin District Public Trustee, will become District Public Trustee in church on December 19.