Private Trustee Australia: Straight Talk and Sustainable Strategies for Overcoming Insolvency

Thyge Trafford-Jones

My mantra to clients owes something to the Divinyls: 'You’ve done it once, you can do it again.’

I became an Accountant because I understand numbers and business. Then I specialised and became an insolvency practitioner because I understand people.

My job involves an ugly word which don’t get much air time at dinner parties: bankruptcy. My mission is to make that word more socially and culturally palatable, because in 2022 insolvency recovery is a vital part of our economy.

People in financial difficulty need a route out of their problems and to realise mistakes are human—and being a regulated debtor isn’t a life sentence.

I’m one of around 200 private trustees in Australia who can plan and help implement that route for individuals. It’s a hard ticket to get, for a reason. We have people’s future prosperity in our hands. I take it very seriously, giving clarity via consistency, clear communication and transparency.

Just don’t expect the kid glove treatment. I’m empathetic but not sympathetic. What you’ll get is straight talking, unvarnished truths, hard questions and occasionally the riot act.

 Why? because nobody with insolvency and bankruptcy needs a shonky salesman promising quick fixes to magic away debts and troubles. In the real professional world—my world—it doesn’t work like that. You’ll get long term, proven strategies born from working in insolvency for two decades.

I’m a conduit to taking weight off shoulders and reducing the stress that comes from having to rebuild finances and a future. My mantra to clients owes something to the Divinyls:

‘You’ve done it once, you can do it again.’

The Role of a Private Trustee in Australia: Navigating Bankruptcy with Expertise

 While my financial expertise comes from a history with thousands of clients, the people connection part is thanks to me taking a while to find my thing. In my twenties, I ran pubs, built a business, fixed windows and built a house.

 It gives me great satisfaction to use my life skills and broad experience to develop mutual trust and understanding with people in a dark place. Rather than seeing me as the enemy, I’m an agent of positive change.

Staying afloat in deep water by being strategic and responsible is also my passion away from work. I’m a lifelong sailor and sometime surfer and bike rider who wants to be a kayaker. And I’m a dad of four who’s good at ironing and giving fatherly advice, mostly that money doesn’t grow on trees and that a failure at what ever you try to achieve is the first attempt in learning.