Services for Trust Beneficiaries
If you are the beneficiary or remainderman of a trust that is managed by a corporate trustee, we are available to assist you in working with the trustee to achieve your objectives with the trust.
Are you confused by the terminology that the trustee uses (basis points, asset allocation, power to adjust, income cash)?
Not sure about the investments you see in your account?
Do trustee fees seem excessively high?
Are you receiving the income you believe you deserve from your trust?
Our goal is to fully understand the aspects of your trust that are most important to you and help you optimize the benefits that you receive. Our expertise may help inform your evaluation of the various functions the trustee is performing. This can include sitting on YOUR side of the table in conversations with your trustee to deepen your understanding, advocate for favorable outcomes, and protect you from being sold products or services that you do not want or need. As a beneficiary of a personal trust, you are fully entitled to make reasonable requests of a corporate trustee, even where the trustee has sole discretion over investment and/or administrative matters.
Having spent a good deal of our careers managing the investment function of a corporate trustee, we understand how a corporate trustee operates. We have significant experience and have a good sense of the areas where a trustee might be flexible and where they probably will not. These insights can make a significant difference in how to best articulate a request to a corporate trustee.
Our service includes working with you and your trustee on a variety of matters including:
Negotiating trustee fees.
Reviewing and evaluating investment performance or presentations.
Working with the trustee’s Portfolio Manager on an Investment Policy Statement.
Reviewing the trustee’s proprietary investment products including mutual funds, common trust funds or private funds.
Working with the trustee to increase or decrease the income distributed by the trust including leveraging total return unitrust or power to adjust statutes where applicable.
Any matters related to the administration of the trust where you might have questions or concerns. Reviewing and/or negotiating security selection.