HMSTrust Governance

HMSTrust Governance

The governing rules of HMSTrust consist of Helen’s Will executed in 1936 (and varied by the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1992 and 2015) and the 2009 Administrative Scheme.

HMSTrust is regulated by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and is governed by a Board of Trustees which meets regularly throughout the year to consider the three core activities of HMSTrust: grantmaking, investment management, and finance / compliance.

HMSTrust has implemented a risk management plan (reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees) and maintains comprehensive insurance policies. The assets of HMSTrust are held in the name of the custodian trustee, HMS Nominees Ltd. HMS Nominees Ltd is a company limited by guarantee and all HMSTrust Trustees are directors and members of HMS Nominees Ltd.

In accordance with the terms of Helen’s Will, HMSTrust maintains both a Capital Account (representing HMSTrust’s corpus) and an Income Account (representing the income earned on HMSTrust’s corpus and out of which grants and operating expenses are paid). The Trustees have the power to transfer up to 15% of the Income Account’s operating surplus each financial year to the Capital Account.

HMSTrust undertakes a comprehensive annual budget process with approval by the Board of Trustees. Quarterly actual results are reported against budget and revised forecasts for the year are prepared regularly.

HMSTrust is not a reporting entity. Accordingly, special purpose annual financial statements are prepared to satisfy its reporting obligations under its governing rules and the ACNC Act. These annual financial statements are audited by an external auditor. The key financial summary presented here is an extract of the audited annual financial statements which are available for download from the ACNC website.

Trustees have delegated management of the Trust’s investments to an Investment Committee made up of four Trustees, the Chief Executive Officer and the Finance Executive. The Committee has engaged Frontier, one of Australia’s leading independent asset consultants, to provide investment advice. Guiding the Committee’s activities is a detailed Investment Policy Statement which sets out the asset allocation for the portfolio and various risk control measures.