NEW BUSINESS

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3602, 5 September 1939, Page 5

NEW BUSINESS

PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE £61,715,713 ADMINISTERED "A pleasing feature of tiie year's operations has been the increase recorded in the new business reported for administration," states the annual report of the Public Trust Office for the year ended March 31, 1939. The aggregate value of the estates awT funds under administration on the 31st March, 1939, was £61,715,713, as compared with £60,815,306 at the close of the previous year, an increase of £900,407. The expansion of the Public 'Trust Office over the past twenty years is shown by the following table, giving the value of the business under administration and the number of wills of living persons on deposit, at ten-yearly intervals: Year Value Estates. No. Wills 1919 £19,242,347 24,237 1929 £48,334,790 62,841 1939 £61,715,713 93,152

The fact that the Public Trustee "specialises in the making of wills and offers this service free of charge to persons desiring new wills prepared or old wills revised where the Public Trustee is appointed executor is reflected in the continued increase in the number of wills received.

In the past year 4919 wills appointing the Public Trustee executor or trustee were deposited by testators, representing a substantial increase over the corresponding figure of 4502 for the previous year. The majority of the wills were prepared by the office.

The number of wills withdrawn during the year through the death of testators or otherwise was 2241. At the close of the year.there were 93,152 wills on deposit, showing a substantial increase of 2678 over the number at the beginning of the year, which itself constituted a record in the history of the office.