Trust Account FAQs

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Q: What happens once PEXA receives my trust account details?

Upon receiving your request, PEXA will forward your completed Trust Account Form to your financial institution for verification. Once we receive verification from your financial institution, we will include the account details in your Subscriber Profile. You must Verify the account, then link Users to the account as payment authorisers. We will then verify each of these Users against the form that has been validated by your bank.
All other permissions are managed by you in your Profile.

Q: When do I need to ensure funds are cleared in the trust account to fund a financial settlement?

Funds must be clear and available in your trust account by the date of settlement, prior to the scheduled settlement time. You must verify the funds are cleared and available for use in the Conveyancing Transaction prior to authorising by digital signing.

Q: Who can sign for my trust account in PEXA?

The Subscriber Manager will establish signing permissions within your PEXA Profile. Only Users who are signatories to your trust account at your financial institution will be able to hold the permission of “signer – trust account” and therefore be able to authorise the withdrawal of funds from your trust account.

Q: Will PEXA access my trust account?

It is important to note that while trust accounts can be registered as a source account in your profile, PEXA does not access a practitioner’s trust account.
At the settlement time, the workspace will lock and PEXA will send payment instructions to your financial institution to move funds from your trust account to your financial institution’s internal account. The financial institution will provide a response confirming that funds have been transferred. PEXA will then send a funds reservation request to the RBA to reserve funds prior to settlement. After funds reservation, documents are lodged with the Land Registry and settlement funds are then exchanged between banks at the RBA. It is important to note that the workspace will not lock unless it is in ready status, which requires, among other things, all financial instructions to have been digitally signed, including an authorisation for the movement of trust funds.

Q: What documentary evidence does PEXA provide for the movement of funds from my source account?

When a signer authorises a source financial line item, a Trust Account Authorisation Record is created. You will have the ability to access the Trust Account Authorisation before and after settlement as documentary evidence of the transaction performed for the relevant trust account source line item. This document records approval provided by the signer(s) for the debit of the amount of funds specified in the source line item from your trust account into your financial institution’s nominated internal account for the purposes of the property transaction.

PEXA also allows Subscribers to access a Settlement Completion Record which records all source and destination line items for the transaction. The combination of your client file and instructions, the Trust Account Authorisation Record (where applicable) and the Settlement Completion Record are all components of record keeping for a PEXA transaction.

Q: Are trust account instructions signed using my Digital Certificate in PEXA?

Yes authorisation of a trust account instruction must be signed using your Digital Certificate in PEXA.

Q: Who has the last action in a Workspace for trust accounts?

The Subscriber must create and verify and authorise all Line Items.If a Line Item is amended by a Subscriber User, it will become unverified. The Source Financial Line Item must be verified in order for an Authorised User to authorise the funds. All trust account instructions (Line items) must be authorised in order for the settlement to get to ‘Ready’ status and the settlement to proceed.

Q: If I am a sole proprietor, can a paralegal sign off on my trust account?

PEXA has the capability to allow a single signer to provide instructions on trust accounts. It is your responsibility to be familiar with the statutory signing rules applicable to your trust account and ensure only persons authorised at law are Authorised Users in your PEXA Profile.
For example, if you are a legal practice and are entitled at law to authorise “two or more authorised associates jointly” to give payment instructions, you should establish the same rules in your PEXA Profile.

Q: What happens if I or someone in my organisation removes a signatory from my records at the Financial Institution but forgets to remove the permissions from the PEXA User/signer in PEXA?

You will be responsible for all authorised transactions in PEXA including any transactions which are authorised by PEXA Users who are no longer signatories on the account records. You should ensure appropriate controls are in place to prevent misalignment.

Completing the Getting Started with PEXA program? See whats next.

If you don't have a trust account, or your trust account is a with a Financial Institution that isn't integrated with PEXA, you may wish to use the PEXA Source Account, learn more about this in the article, Source Account FAQs.