Corporate governance is concerned with the way an organisation is controlled and directed.

The Senior Master has established a robust corporate governance structure. It is intended to protect the interests of clients, minimise financial and other risks and ensure that Funds in Court (FIC) is accountable to the clients and its key stakeholders.

FIC is a discrete division of the Supreme Court of Victoria (the Court). FIC supports the function of the Associate Judge who is the Senior Master. The Senior Master holds, invests and manages funds paid into Court for the benefit of people who are under a legal disability (clients). The Senior Master also manages funds paid into Court pending the outcome of a proceeding, as security for costs, and pursuant to the Trustee Act 1958 (Vic).

The Senior Master is supported by a Judicial Registrar. Both are judicial officers of the Court. The judiciary is an independent arm of government. As such, it is not subject to the control of the administrative arm of government.

FIC is committed to achieving and demonstrating the highest standards of corporate governance. The FIC governance structure ensures FIC is fully and properly accountable to the Court and its clients for the effective and efficient operation of FIC. The governance arrangements of FIC ensure that:

  • the interests of clients are supported and protected
  • financial and other risks to the funds administered by FIC are minimised.

FIC has used the Governance Institute of Australia’s ‘Good Governance Guide: Achieving governance in organisations without boards’ to guide the development of FIC’s Corporate Governance Statement. The guide states that:

“Some public sector organisations do not have an elected board in the commercial sense of the term. They are not exempt from the need for a governance framework…It is good governance for such organisations to articulate how the responsibilities for accountability, transparency and stewardship will be implemented in order to achieve a governance framework.”

You can download a copy of the FIC Corporate Governance Statement [PDF 1MB] [Word 3MB].