Equity Trustees has been helping Australians manage their wealth for more than 130 years. Our trustee business was established in 1888, and we distribute more than $70m in grants to charities and organisations annually, many benefiting our First Australians.

Equity Trustees recognise the strong connection our First Peoples have to their land, and respect the efforts of many Elders past and present to secure legal recognition of traditional rights to their land. We understand that the compensation and wealth provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities is often received due to the sacrifices Elders and their communities make with respect to their land.

As a specialist professional trustee company with 130 years of experience in acting as trustee and providing wealth management solutions, we are uniquely placed to offer bespoke trustee and wealth services and advice tailored to the need of individual communities, to ensure the protection of the legacies achieved by their Elders.

Our Community Trust Service

We are committed to providing the following for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community trust clients:

• Provision of responsible, rigorous and transparent trustee services;
  
  
• A tailored partnership and collaborative approach to the management of each trust – particularly by establishing strong partnerships with established trust committees, representative corporations and the broader community, by respecting decision-making processes outlined in the legal documents and culturally as appropriate
  
  
• Ensuring value for money in providing quality specialist trustee services to maximise funds available for the community;
  
  
• Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations and the community through capacity-building initiatives to enable them to pursue their cultural, social, land custodianship, economic and other business development opportunities and become increasingly involved in their trusts
  
  
• Engaging with independent specialist external providers of services to ensure trusts and communities have access to independent specialist services (such as investment managers/advisers);
  
  
• Ensuring prudent investment management and/or supervision of independent managers and advisers.

In addition to the typical trustee and wealth management services, we strive to achieve greater community impact by –

• Targeted trust distributions – maximising community benefit through strategic and considered distribution policies that meet trust objectives and community expectations;
  
  
• Social impact investing – in larger trusts and where the trust deed permits, investigating opportunities for local economic development projects;
  
  
• Leveraging off other available funding sources – identifying comparable funding streams including government funding programs, lotteries, other trusts and not-for-profit organisations;
  
  
• Providing access to education and training in financial services;
  
  
• Providing access to estate planning services.

Download a copy of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Trusts brochure

Read our 2020 Snapshot 
An annual snapshot of the range of programs, trusts and projects we engage in in our work with, and for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.