150 Years - Public Trust is personal: Part I
We meet Public Trust employees who use their empathy and expertise to make a difference in the lives of New Zealanders.
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Meet Jerry Koh and Sebastian Wilberforce
Public Trust people deal with the most personal life and end-of-life events for New Zealanders every day.
We meet Public Trust employees who use their empathy and expertise make a difference in the lives of New Zealanders.
Over the course of our lives, there are many uncomfortable conversations we all need to have with our whānau, including those about the tricky subjects of death, money and the future.
Yet more than half of adult New Zealanders still do not have a will in place, and that percentage is even higher in Māori, Pacific and migrant communities.
Public Trust’s greatest asset is its people, their collective experience and knowledge, as a connected network of more than 400 experts across Aotearoa. Public Trust exists to deliver high-quality, trusted and empathetic trustee services to New Zealanders, enabling them to have these difficult conversations so that they can put the necessary plans in place to build and protect their legacies, and to advocate for some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders.
Jerry Koh creating the best outcomes together – Corporate Trustee Services
Jerry joined Public Trust in 2019 as the Head of Assurance in Corporate Trustee Services.
His background is in accounting, and he is a chartered accountant and a trained auditor. Earlier in his career he worked at some of the big global accounting firms before holding senior accounting roles with fund managers, and has extensive experience in the funds management industry.
As Head of Assurance, Jerry's team provides assurance that Public Trust's supervised entities, 80% of whom are managed funds, are doing the job that they should be doing and keeping to their licence obligations. More specifically, he leads a team of assurance analysts that review the reports that supervised entities are obliged to provide to their supervisor by law. The team also works with client relationship managers to communicate any concerns to clients.
According to Jerry, the most important thing is that his team spends time with clients helping them meet new financial markets regulatory expectations as well as instilling even greater investor and stakeholder confidence in the industry.
Jerry points to recent compliance assurance programme thematic reviews undertaken for clients that looked at best practice CAP for fund managers. Clients greatly appreciative that Public Trust had undertaken this initiative to narrow the knowledge gap and help them to develop more robust compliance assurance programmes to address their own organisational risks.
For Jerry the key is to listen wholeheartedly, as only then are you able to understand and empathise, and ultimately, build trust.
Where Jerry believes that his team and Corporate Trustee Services really make a difference in the lives of everyday New Zealanders is ensuring that for underlying investors, but particularly KiwiSaver members, their investments are protected in line with Public Trust values and goals to help build and protect the legacies of Kiwi.
Jerry’s team is proud that the job they do ultimately ensures that Kiwis are not going to be disadvantaged or are not going to lose their livelihoods, that their savings and their investments are secure for the future and their retirement.
Jerry tells another great story. With the advent of the Financial Markets Conduct Act, when fund managers had to be licensed and to appoint a supervisor, a number of fund managers were just small start-ups. Public Trust took them on as their supervisor and over time, working together through both the good and challenging times, some of these funds have grown immensely, and have become default KiwiSaver providers. For Jerry, this example is all about relationships that build trust and ultimately create the best outcomes together.
While Jerry's team doesn’t directly interact with everyday New Zealand investors, he points out that the work of the wider CTS team does have a direct personal impact on everyday Kiwis when it comes to KiwiSaver significant financial hardship withdrawals. As the supervisor of a number of KiwiSaver funds, including 4 of the 6 default funds, Public Trust is ultimately responsible for approving or declining hardship withdrawal applications. These decisions are always made in the best interests of the individual investor to help ensure their ongoing financial wellbeing.
Jerry is most proud to have contributed to the great culture at Public Trust. It’s something he truly believes everyone at Public Trust is proud of, and what new team members readily embrace when joining Public Trust.
Sebastian Wilberforce making an enduring difference in communities – Charitable Trusts
As a Specialist Trustee - Charities at Public Trust, Sebastian is delighted to be able to help New Zealanders make an enduring difference in their communities.
For many years Sebastian has worked with charities and their supporters, principally with gifts left through wills. He has even written a book about it that has been used around the world for more than 20 years. At Public Trust, Sebastian helps people make a lasting contribution by setting up a charitable trust, either now or in their wills.
“It gives them a huge amount of satisfaction to know that their legacy will live on beyond their lifetime, and that they can continue to support causes they really care about for ever. They’re also really pleased to know that Public Trust can facilitate this for them.”
The other aspect of Sebastian’s work at Public Trust is to help look after some of the over 420 charitable trusts the Crown entity already administers, giving effect to the wishes of so many people who have passed on.
“It is very rewarding work. We invest their gifts wisely to provide an income which goes year after year to charities, enabling them to have a lasting impact in their communities. It’s very nice that they or a loved one live on in the names of their trusts. I find I often wonder who they were, and would have liked to have met them.”
In most cases, Public Trust’s customers already know which charities they want to help, and it is these that are mentioned in their charitable trusts. In other situations, customers know the area they want to help but ask Public Trust to decide who should receive grants. This provides some flexibility to allow for changing circumstances over time. Sometimes our customers tell Public Trust who it should consult when making a decision on granting and this can be a wonderful way to include family members or friends in the perpetuation of their legacy, or to educate future generations about being philanthropically active.
Many millions of dollars have been paid out to charities by Public Trust over the past 150 years on behalf of its customers. Together with Public Trust, they have made New Zealand a better place.