On Friday, August 19th, at 11am EST, Steven M. Berger talks about when you should consider using a trust company as successor trustee for your trust.

There are 6 situations you should consider using a trust company:

1. You don’t have anyone close to you that is qualified to serve or maybe someone is qualified, but don’t have the time.

2. You have a potential of a family conflict.

3. You need experts to manage businesses or IRA accounts etc.

4. You already have a trusted advisor and want to keep them involved.

5. A trust company is an independent trustee which can protect beneficiaries, by keeping a non interested party at the center.

6. If you have a special needs beneficiary, an expert trustee with familiar experience can help protect them.

On the other side of this are the reasons why you wouldn’t want to use a Trust company. The first reason is the cost involved which can be 1.75%. Most require a $1 Million minimum. Some only require $300,000 minimum and once the trust dwindles down to less, the trust company would need to resign which causes some issues. The beneficiary may not want to work with trust companies or possibly committee type decisions.

We advise you to work with your advisor, use complexity in your Trust and combine accounts where possible.

Alternatives to corporate trustees are to use outright distribution, charitable remainder trust or buying an annuity.

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Bring your questions about estate planning and administration to our weekly Facebook Live with Mr. Berger on Fridays at 11am EST. Leave your email if you’d like to receive a notification of our response.