Articles
Writings from The Professional Trustee
What I Believe
The family should be better off for the work the trustee does. The trustee lightens the load of the family by doing his job meticulously with a high sensitivity for each family member.
Our Vision and Mission
Clients tell us they search for meaning and comfort, especially during sensitive life transitions and facing the inevitable. Especially as to what they want to learn from past enervations and to pass on to the next.
Principles and Values
My intention is to provide a personalized approach tailored specifically to those people involved with each trust. This personalized approach is informed by my professional values.
The 10-Step Plan to Avoid a Bad Death
Many of us have witnessed Bad Deaths. Whether they be of another family member, friend, acquaintance or a beloved celebrity, we have seen those who have suffered
Bill of Trust Beneficiary Rights
Each and every beneficiary to a family trust should enjoy these rights: The beneficiary should have the trust explained to her in understandable written English. Knowing what benefits her, the beneficiary should have active input in creating the vision, mission...
Why It Matters Who Serves as Your Client’s Trustee
Many advisors are indifferent to their client’s choice of trustee. However, these advisors may be doing their clients a disservice, given the immense impact the trustee has
Put Your Successor Trustee to Work NOW!
Don’t Wait Until It Is Too Late One of the prevalent and cruel myths in the trustscape is that the successor trustee has nothing to do until the disability or death of his predecessor. At first glance, this wrong idea makes some sense. After all, it reflects the legal...
Field-Testing a Trust for Success
Offer this proven practice to help your clients enjoy a smooth transition and avoid litigation and other horrors Executive Summary Part 1: Problem and Solution: Despite excellent drafting, families experience distress and worse around trust administration, because of...
The Four C’s of Successful Intergenerational Transition
I find giving an interview helpful in distilling my thoughts and experiences on successful intergenerational transition, especially so when the interviewer is thoughtful and passionate. So, here are some highlights from my interview by Jeff Bechar, principal of...
How Parents Can Make a Smooth Transition
Setting up your child’s Special Needs Trust for Success So, you’ve been taking terrific care of your adult special needs child— attending lovingly and steadfastly to the big picture as well as the endless details. How do you ensure a seamless transition to the time...
Essential Next Steps after You’ve Signed the Trust
You’re not finished with taking care of your family, even after you’ve signed your trust documents and transferred your assets into the trust. There’s more work to do to plan for these transitions and help your family be best prepared for it. This involves three main...
Why smart trust planning will save you money and pain
What some savvy folk are doing to better face the inevitable Many families are investing in preparation before their trusts become effective to minimize and avoid anticipated problems— problems which, if allowed to fester, can be costly in both dollars and family...
Case Study: A family falls out of love with their trustee, but the court won’t grant a divorce.
Consideration of the court decision and the trust administration issues in the case of Spencer v. Di Cola, 2014 Ill. App. (1st) 121173, 2014 Ill app LEXIS 289 (1st Dist. 5/1/14), rehearing denied, August 18, 2014, modified on denial of rehearing, 2014 Ill. App. (1st)...
Guiding Towards Financial Competence
Consider the textbook case of administering a trust for a beneficiary who is challenged by sticking to a budget. A trustee’s escalating instructions and imposing consequences at best treat a symptom, and at worst are destructive both to the beneficiary and to a...
A Trustee in Trouble is a Family in Trouble
All too often families suffer the painful experience of their trust not working. Tensions and contentions, fights— maybe strained family holiday dinners, perhaps cancelled altogether! Court?! Here are the primary trustee troubles that can destroy a family: WORK...
Declaring Independence from Your Trustee
How to replace the trustee who isn’t serving the best interests of the family During the course of trust administration, an unproductive relationship may develop between the trustee and the beneficiary. This fact is not surprising given the sad current reality: few...
Flourishing is Another Name for Success
Using the PERMA Guides of Positive Psychology to Improve Trust Administration I’ll bet PERMA doesn’t appear on the check-lists of many trustees. Perhaps it should. Deeply engaged in the study of how people flourish is a team of positive psychologists collaborating...
The Under-Appreciated Successor Trustee
What’s Preparation Got To Do With It? It’s easy to understand how the culture and even many professionals think that there’s nothing for the successor trustee to do until the grantor is unable to act. After all, the grantor is doing just fine handling his money...
Recognizing Family Dynamics
Trusts live in a highly emotional context of money, death, loss and family. Feelings long-submerged can explode even for the most rational of us. Too often, the approach in handling trusts is limited to intellectual, legalistic constructs instead of to also...
Successor Trustee Failure
The position of successor trustee can be of critical importance to your family. That’s because providing concise proactive service in advance can make the difference between a seamless transition and the unfortunately too-common scenario where the...
4 Tips for Avoiding Trust and Family Breakdowns
Case Study Lessons for Making Trusts Work Too many families feel the pain and expense of problems with their trusts. Mis-steps in administration, often well-intentioned, derail trusts into legal, financial and family breakdowns. This article uses real life...
Do Tell?!
The impact of a trustee’s refusal to share information with a beneficiary. There’s a recurring question of how much the trustee should disclose to the beneficiary. This problem is bound by legal minimums on one side. On the other side, we have questions of...
Black Sheep Come in Many Colors
Tending to Unique Family Members — and their Family The label we put on a person who is not in sync with the rest of the family is “black sheep.” He— or she!— is often the one going in the different direction. So while all the family may be engaged in a family...
What is “Successful” Trust Administration?
You would think that anyone who participates in a trust would want the trust handled “successfully” You would think that it wouldn’t matter whether you’re the trust creator who is setting up the trust, or the beneficiary, receiving the benefits from the trust creator,...
On-Boarding the Trustee
The on-boarding process supports success by: Making sure the leadership and advisory roles are well-filled. Building an environment of mutual trust and collaboration. Setting, managing and meeting expectations of the stakeholder family and also advisors. I’ve...
Trust Goals and Policies
The opportunity for engagement Here we consider the development and use of Investment and Distribution Policy Statements, along with their living context: the greater goals and mission of each trust for the family served. The expression of the goals of the trust on...
The Benefits of a Distribution Policy Statement for a Family Trust
Many in the trustscape use— or at least, have heard of— an Investment Policy Statement (“IPS”). The IPS articulates the approach of the trust for investment of its financial assets, and can cover the nature of the investments, risk tolerance, the targeted return, the...
Other Keys to Successful Trust Administration
Trust Accountings: financial communications One of the under-appreciated functions of the trustee is as a communicator. Communication opportunities flow from his multiple roles: in investing, in spending, and in taking care of any of a range of projects which the...
The Trustee’s Interpretation of The Trust
The attorney delivers the long, detailed trust document. But does the trust creator understand the nuts and bolts of how it works? More critically, does the trustee— who has to administer and manage the trust— understand it? And what about the beneficiaries?...
Thoughts on achieving success through the journey of disability and incapacity
Decreased capacity of the principal means increased complexity and responsibility for the financial fiduciary The financial power of attorney— typically called the “power of attorney for property”— is often considered of lessor importance in estate transitions....
Four Success Pitfalls – And How To Avoid Them
Trustees Won’t Be Successful Tripping Over These Traps 1 ~ Lack of Communication: Excellent communication is the most underrated of trust tasks and one of the most essential for trust success. Keeping the stakeholders informed about what is going on is critical....
For The Love of Siblings
Hartley Goldstone and Kathy Wiseman initiated the Positive Story Project to educate through instances where the relationship between trustees, beneficiaries, and their advisors have worked out well. Goldstone and Wiseman collected these true stories— and contributed...
King of the Road
I was still working on this Positive Story when Hartley advised that he and Kathy had enough articles for their book. Recently, hosting a trustee study group session around Positive Trustee and Beneficiary stories inspired me to finish it. One of my favorite...
GENERAL INFO
