Top 4 Benefits of Advisor-Friendly Trusts
Trust-linked accounts are incredibly sticky by industry standards and resist brute automation. From anticipating beneficiaries to interpreting grantors, these accounts demand human resources.
Dedicated Trust Officers
Trusts are designed to ensure your family’s financial legacy is cared for both during your lifetime and after you’re gone. They provide a way to transfer assets outside your will and simplify the probate process, making them an excellent option for those seeking privacy or simplicity.
Trusts can be revocable or irrevocable, offering flexibility for your plans. For example, if you find yourself involved in a new charitable cause down the road or have grandchildren you want to write into your estate plan, changing your revocable trust is as easy as executing an amendment. This allows your trust to adapt to changes in life’s unforeseen circumstances.
Access to a Wide Range of Assets
Unlike delegated trusts, an advisor friendly trust offers greater flexibility and control for the family. In addition, clients may appoint a protector who makes distribution decisions with trustees while relieving them of fiduciary risk.
Alternative investments are gaining traction because they allow investors to find better returns, diversify portfolios, realize tax benefits, and lock into predictable and passive cash flows. They’re also less volatile than traditional asset classes and are typically less correlated with standard assets.
Nonfinancial specialty assets like farms and timberland offer financial benefits and align with social and environmental values. These unique investment opportunities can add significant value to a client’s estate plan. Also, self-settled trusts offer creditor protection and can be a great solution for those in professions at high risk of lawsuits.
Seamless Collaboration
Collaboration is essential to creating the best client outcomes in today’s complex world. However, finding the right collaboration tools to meet your business needs can be challenging. Ideally, these tools should be simple and easy to use but also offer the security required for sensitive information.
Advisor-friendly trust companies are non-custodial trustee-only companies that partner with financial advisors instead of competing for assets under management. They recognize that investment management is a service that a client’s trusted financial advisor should provide, and they offer flat trustee fees, separation of duties, and flexible estate planning solutions like directed trusts. Working with an advisor-friendly trust company is more important than ever due to a potential decrease in the estate tax exemption.
Expertise and Resources
Trust protector – oversees essential decisions related to the trust, including changing situs, adding or eliminating trustees, and modifying or revising the trust. The power to make these decisions can rest with one person or a committee. Distribution advisor/committee – instructs trustees on all distributions to beneficiaries, excluding tax-sensitive distributions, and presents a letter of direction to the trustees addressing the investment of trust assets. This power may be vested in one person or a committee.
An expert can save you time and money because they have spent years studying, educating themselves, and working in their discipline. As a result, they can execute tasks faster and understand the business’s bigger picture.
A non-custodial, trustee-only trust company can help you develop new accounts by assisting with account transfers from bank trust departments or RIA custodians, co-producing luncheons and seminars to help recruit, offering integrated technology that shows clients the value of their assets, providing a hotline for client questions; and delivering on the commitment to be an advisor friendly provider.
