Sole trustee
Full responsibility, start to finish.
Services
What we do as your trustee
Here's the work involved, and which parts of it we can take on.
Roles we can serve in
Co-trustee
Alongside a family member or friend you still want involved. We take on the technical work. They keep a voice in decisions.
Successor trustee
Named as backup. We only step in if your first-choice trustee can't or won't serve.
Directed trustee
We handle administration and fiduciary duties, and follow investment (and sometimes distribution) instructions from a party you name, usually your advisor.
Delegated trustee
We handle administration, recordkeeping, distributions, and tax filings. Your advisor keeps managing investments.
What we do
The work behind protecting a legacy.
A trust can make life easier for the people you love, but someone still has to carry out the details. From settling a trust after a death to managing a trust for years to come, we take on the financial, administrative, and fiduciary responsibilities so your family doesn't have to manage them alone.
Trust Settlement
When it's time to carry out the plan.
Losing someone is hard enough without taking on the responsibility of settling their trust. We handle the complex work of gathering assets, resolving obligations, and making sure the trust is carried out as intended.
What this can include:
- Locating, valuing, and organizing assets
- Managing the sale or transfer of real estate
- Coordinating business sales, transfers, or succession
- Identifying and resolving debts, expenses, and outstanding obligations
- Coordinating with attorneys, accountants, financial advisors, and other professionals
- Managing required tax filings and reporting
- Communicating with beneficiaries and managing distributions
- Maintaining records and preparing final trust accountings
- Addressing complex or out-of-state assets requiring additional coordination
We manage the details and coordinate the professionals, helping your family avoid unnecessary stress, travel, and administrative work.
Ongoing Trust Administration
For everything that comes next.
Some trusts continue for years or even generations. We provide the ongoing oversight, careful recordkeeping, and fiduciary judgment needed to manage them responsibly over time.
What this can include:
- Maintaining accurate financial records and trust accountings
- Overseeing trust assets and monitoring account activity
- Reviewing and processing beneficiary distributions
- Making discretionary distribution decisions consistent with the trust's terms
- Coordinating tax preparation, filings, and payments
- Managing trust expenses and bill payments
- Providing beneficiary statements, reporting, and communication
- Working alongside the family's attorney, CPA, and financial advisor
- Monitoring compliance with the trust's terms and applicable requirements
- Providing continuity as beneficiaries' needs and circumstances change
A dedicated trust officer helps keep everything organized, accountable, and moving forward, year after year.
Scope of services is illustrative and depends on the company's approved fiduciary role, the trust terms, and the circumstances of each engagement.
Why it matters
Your family should inherit your legacy, not a second job.
Being a trustee can mean managing property sales, coordinating with attorneys, keeping financial records, filing taxes, making difficult decisions, and communicating with beneficiaries. It takes time, expertise, and attention, often during an already emotional period.
We take on that responsibility professionally, so your loved ones can focus on each other instead of paperwork, deadlines, and difficult financial decisions.
Let's talk about your trustHow investment management works
Your advisor can stay involved.
If your family already has a financial advisor, they can keep managing investments while we serve as directed or delegated trustee. If a trust calls for us to hold investment authority ourselves, we can do that too. We'll confirm the role and how we're paid before you sign anything.
Custody
We manage the trust.
An independent custodian holds the assets.
We serve as trustee and hold fiduciary responsibility for your trust. Trust assets are held in custody by an independent custodian that is not affiliated with us. We direct the custodian on the trust's behalf in accordance with the trust agreement, and the custodian provides account statements and records. Using a separate custodian means the entity making fiduciary decisions is different from the entity holding the assets.
Who this is for
Three ways people come to us.
Individuals & families
If a family member is already named trustee, we can serve alongside them or step in later. If you're building a new trust, we can be named from the start.
Financial advisors
We can serve as a directed or delegated trustee so you keep managing investments, or take on broader authority when the trust calls for it.
Attorneys
A trustee for clients who don't have a natural fit for the role, no matter where the plan was drafted. We don't give legal advice or draft documents. That stays with you.
How we charge
Clear fees based on the trust
we're administering.
Fees are based on the value of the assets in your trust. As those assets grow, the fee can grow with them.
Closely held businesses, real estate, and other specialty assets can need extra oversight, and can carry additional fees. We'll walk through that up front.
Common questions
Questions we hear often.
A corporate fiduciary is a licensed trust company that serves as trustee professionally, handling recordkeeping, tax filings, distributions, and investment or administrative duties under a legal obligation to act in beneficiaries' best interests.
Unlike a family member, a corporate fiduciary doesn't have personal relationships or conflicts with beneficiaries, doesn't age out or become incapacitated, and is regulated and bonded.