Überhöhte professionelle Kosten durch manuelle Abschlussbuchhaltung und Dokumentation

Definition

Guidance on winding up a trust in Australia sets out multiple required steps: determining all trust assets, deciding whether to transfer or sell them, discharging all liabilities, preparing full trust accounts, having those accounts independently verified and approved by beneficiaries, and documenting the wind‑up with resolutions and sometimes a deed of termination.[2][3][6] These tasks are frequently carried out using manual processes (email questionnaires to beneficiaries, spreadsheets to reconcile historic transactions, custom MS Word precedents for resolutions and deeds). Logic‑based estimates using typical professional rates indicate that manual completion of these tasks takes 6–15 extra hours compared with a semi‑automated workflow (pre‑populating ledgers from accounting systems, standardised templates for distribution minutes, automated asset schedules). At blended professional costs of AUD 250–350/hour for lawyers and accountants, this represents AUD 1,500–5,250 of avoidable labour per trust termination. For in‑house corporate trustees, similar hours are spent by internal staff instead of on higher‑value tasks, representing an opportunity cost of the same order of magnitude.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: Trustees and their advisors in Australia 🇦🇺 overspend AUD 1,500–5,000 per trust on manual preparation of final accounts, termination deeds and distribution records. Automating data collection, calculations and document generation reduces this by 30–50%.

Affected Stakeholders

Trustees and corporate trustees, Private client lawyers, Accountants and trust administrators, Beneficiaries bearing professional fee reductions in their final distributions

Related Business Risks