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Trust Bank Account Q.
Hi Just wanted to confirm.
Westpac have agreed to open a business account for private Trust using the profile info of the Trustee.
Q. I just wanted to confirm that Westpac are asking for “source of funds and/or source of wealth”, and they have a list which includes the option of other and they are happy to write estate/asset protection. Is this ok? Am I correct in saying that no implications occur due to Westpac use of the words – source of funds/ source of wealth?
Thank you
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28 Replies
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Is this in Australia?
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Hi morag yes it is
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Hi Yort this is what I got from Mark I hope it helps in some way.
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Thanks morag. Unfortunately the level of detail Westpac required was disgusting. 4 hours of the person on the other end of the video link saying “we do not have that option, you need to do this”. I ended up cancelling the account after they could not even figure out who had the authority to make the decision. They actually said that would be the CEO and I immediately answered ok, can you please organise a time and they said no.
The level of detail they require completely defeats the purpose of having a private trust. N/A is not an option. It all felt wrong at the point they required a photo copy of entire deed – It just has not sat well with me knowing they want it all.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by yort.
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Does anyone in Australia have an experience, opening a private trust bank account, with someone that they can recommend?
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by yort.
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hi Yort, I recently opened an unregistered trust account with Westpac in Elanora Queensland. No problems although I have been a customer for around 40 years. Westpac wouldn’t open foundation accounts for me. i can give you the managers details if you cant find them online
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Hi Shaman. Thank you for reaching out. Westpac where absolutely willing to open the account however the level of detail they required just gave me that gut feeling it wasn’t right. They photo copied the entire deed when I had agreed that they only take copies of the pages relevant to them. Did they do this with you?
This in addition to an insane amount of information they say is required due to money laundering laws. The level of information they required just gave me that gut feeling it was pointless having a private trust while putting so much private information onto the public record. Could be just me however I wanted to wait and see smaller credit unions etc before commiting to handing over so much private information.
For the record Iv’e been a customer with Westpac for 20 years or so, which is why I tried them first.
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I got this strange feeling the entire time, that these people had no problem trading their bodily autonomy so the state can keep them safe, they now have zero respect or even the soul to care about the importance of privacy.
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westpac manager said to me they only need the 3 pages with names and signatures but they took the whole booklet so who knows. The detail they required was pretty similar to any other bank account that I have opened up. I said the funds were coming from real estate transaction but if they don’t and my circumstances change then “oh well…they were correct to the best of my knowledge at the time”. Have you seen the movie BLOW with Johnny Depp in it and he’s walking through the airport with a suitcase full of cash and he has a smile on his face because his mind is elsewhere? do that 🙂 I’m not saying you are doing anything wrong but if you resist the questions then they WILL become suspicious and just cancel the account opening if they think it is going to be too much trouble. Having said all that, you may very well feel more comfortable with a smaller bank/building society or similar. I had Greater building society close all of my accounts including company and trust accounts which I had with them for over 20 years because they didn’t like my crypto transactions and westpac closed my foundation accounts “just because” so its a lucky dip out there.
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Yeah fair enough mate thank you. Getting it done wasn’t an issue – I had the account ready to go however I simply couldn’t autograph the documents at the end because It didn’t sit right having so much private trust information on public record. Something didn’t sit right. If I had of gone ahead as it was, little privacy protection benefits were offered when compared to a public trust. If they only had the deed pages copied like the 3 in your case, I would have gone ahead however now I’m concerned that they’ll have them on record if I use Westpac… will have to try find a remedy by sounds of it
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Hi Yort Mark told me it is strange that they are photocopying the whole document but it didn’t matter as they are competently written and completely safe, if they know what is in them it still doesn’t matter and it won’t reveal the assets of the trust as it is just the Trust document. We are having the same problems as you in NZ and I am just trying to work out how to approach this problem myself so I feel your pain. I can share some more q and as if you would like?
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Thanks morag that’d be awesome. That’s interesting, are you having trouble finding bank to open account or are you also concerned at level of private info they require? They kept saying you need to give us this and that because of new legislation surrounding money laundering
I think I should have just gone ahead with it.
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I’m finding it impossible to find a bank that doesn’t want to gain jurisdiction over our Trust via getting us to answer questions for things they have no right to know. Here’s the Q and As
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I think it would be great if Mark would do a role play webinar for a Bank appointment and how to deal with these impositions correctly and competently to make sure they don’t get the information they want and still get an account opened.
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Yeah good call.
Even 1 of the questions regarding account purpose they pre filled in an option that they thought was close which basically would have given ATO a back door. Lucky I picked up on it prior to signing
That was the first time I became aware of the blatant communist control whom are now administrating.
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Hi Yort. I opened a Trust Account with the Commonwealth Bank. So far, so good!
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Can you give us a run down on what happened at the interview and the information they required you to pass over?
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Hi Janet!
I took the Trust papers to the bank and told them to make a copy from the pages they need. They did that and then they opened the account. I was asked to sign twice (I couldn’t see what I was signing as they told me to sign on an ipad). I then asked me to show me what I had to sign and it merely showed the name of the Trust.
I’m not 100% sure that there aren’t any other things I signed, so I added all rights reserved, but they wouldn’t accept that.
Anyhow, I now have a Business Transaction Account with my Trust name.
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Thank you I appreciate you sharing that with me.
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Hi All.
im having trouble with the banks wanting all the details of beneficiaries including their home addresses. Ive expressed to them that i dont understand why they need all these details as they have no power over the trust and also they are violating privacy laws by requesting me to provide this on their behalf without consent and its also private.
I ask them why they require this information and they have come back with
‘As discussed, I do need to collect the residential address for all named beneficiaries below.
This is a regulatory requirement that NAB needs to understand for reporting purposes who is linked to each trust, and who benefits (i.e. the beneficiaries). I understand they may not have control of the trust, however we do need to collect their basic information which would be their name and address to be able to proceed with the account opening.’
I cant get any accounts open without providing this information. Commonwealth, NAB, Bank of Melbourne and Bendigo bank are all requiring this.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how i deal with this as i was under the assumption that this is none of their business and i shouldnt be providing being the trustee of this account.
Thanks
Tarei
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Hi I am having the same problem. I’ll share the replies I have given. They just seem to be giving the run around, I think it is time we worked out how to open our own private banking system.
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Hi Morag,
Sorry didnt see your reply here, i have private msgd you. I have had this exact same conversation with the banks and stated all the same statements in your document and i cant proceed without providing them. They cant give me a number to call to discuss this someone else, they just say its policy and they dont know who i could contact to answer these questions. its very frustrating. So far i have gone to NAB, BOM, Westpc, Bendigo and Commonwealth(they didnt ask me but the documents they send back listed all the beneficaries, which im assuming they have taken off the deed and entered into their system after i visited the branch and they sent off my info to their specialist teams) i have an appointment with ANZ on monday which i am assuming ill come across the same issues
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I am having the same sort of issues but I’m keeping on keeping on and trying to learn as I go. I’ve left some info for you on the private message that may help you. It helped me when we were answering questions at the last bank. We’re still waiting to hear back from them at this stage.
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let me know how you go and if you manage to find away around it and ill do the same.
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Ok, well I’ve just used all of the suggestions Mark gave me. So I’ll let you know if the account gets opened.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by
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Have you tried Heritage or a credit union?
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hi
no i havent but i will try, do they ask for the details of beneficiaries at all?
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Heritage may not, but it may depend on the staff. I don’t know about credit unions
