A free will sounds like a practical way to get an important task off the list. But for families dealing with larger estates, that decision can come with a significant price tag that doesn’t appear until after you’re gone, and by then, it’s your beneficiaries left to pay it.

NSW Trustee and Guardian offers a no-cost will preparation service, and many people who use it appoint the agency as their executor. What isn’t always well understood upfront is the fee structure that kicks in when the estate is eventually administered and those fees can be substantial.

 

The fee is in the fine print

When you appoint NSW Trustee and Guardian as your executor, you’re agreeing to a fee structure applied to your estate at the time of administration, not at the time of signing. That distinction matters enormously.

The agency charges approximately 2.75% on estates valued over $1.5 million. This fee is calculated against asset value, not the complexity of the work involved. A straightforward estate with a single beneficiary and a clear property title attracts the same percentage as a contested, complicated one.

Consider a scenario that’s become increasingly common: someone drafts a will in the early 2000s when their home is worth $300,000 to $400,000. By the time they pass, that same property, untouched and unmortgaged, is worth well over $2 million. The executor fee applied to that estate could easily exceed $50,000, drawn directly from what’s left to the family.

 

Fees that haven’t kept pace with reality

The executor fee structure is regulated and reviewed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART). The most recent review, however, was conducted in 2014, before, property values entered the growth cycle that reshaped the market. The model hasn’t been updated since, meaning a fee regime designed for one era is being applied to asset values from another.

For context, NSW Supreme Court guidance on executor commissions for private practitioners typically falls between 0.25% and 1.25% of asset value, depending on complexity. The gap between that benchmark and what the government agency charges can, in practice, represent tens of thousands of dollars out of an estate.

 

Broad powers, limited oversight

There’s another layer worth understanding. Wills prepared through NSW Trustee and Guardian often include clauses granting the trustee authority to appropriate parts of the estate without requiring beneficiary consent. The agency describes these as standard provisions necessary for tax efficiency and protecting vulnerable beneficiaries, and that may be true in many cases. But beneficiaries who are unaware of these clauses can find themselves with limited recourse when decisions are made they didn’t anticipate.

 

What this means for you

None of this is to say the service is without value. For simple estates with modest assets and no alternatives, it may be entirely appropriate. The concern arises when circumstances change. Property growth, accumulated savings, and superannuation can transform what looked like a modest estate into one where the executor fee becomes a significant and unexpected deduction.

A will that costs nothing to create can cost your beneficiaries considerably more than a privately arranged alternative ever would have.

If you have questions about your estate planning, or want to make sure the arrangements you have in place still make sense for where you are today, the team at Tribel is happy to help point you in the right direction.