Category Archives: Latest News

Building Trust

Having trust is more than an intention. It’s even more than acting in integrity. In intellectual terms, it may be stated as living a life of being trustworthy. In relational terms, it is acting in a manner that creates in the other person – the person you want to trust you – the authentic feeling…

A Trust is a Process as Well as a Document

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 reality: typically the successor has no fiduciary or legal duty until it’s time to formally…

The Cost of the Wrong Trustee

“How much?”  Yes, it’s a typical question for any professional service. In my world, I’m often asked about my fees very early in discussions with new families seeking an independent trustee. In fact, sometimes the first question posed is about my fee structure. This is a fair question. Certainly, when selecting a trustee, one appropriate…

Keys to Successful Trust Administration

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 maker who is setting up the trust, or the beneficiary, receiving the benefits from the trust maker, or the trust and estate attorney…

Leaving Behind an Unfit 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 trustees — including individual and corporate professional trustees — study how to administer…

How to Collaborate with a Trust Protector

Notes on the discussion of the Chicago Trustee Collaboratory on the subject of Collaborating with a Trust Protector as compiled by Daniel P. Felix, founder of the Collaboratory and principal of The Professional Trustee. The Chicago Trustee Collaboratory recently convened to consider the opportunities and challenges around collaborating with trust protectors. Among the special guests…

Independent Trustee Alliance 2023 Conference

Our annual conference will be held live in Dallas, Texas and streamed online simultaneously. WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Trustees Learn new tips, techniques and interact with other professionals in your field. Attorneys, Wealth Managers, Family Advisors, CPAs, Insurance Professionals Learn more about this profession and how it can help increase your value to your clients. CLE:…

A Personal Trust Industry ‘Disrupter’

“Professional Individual Trustees have a number of distinct advantages over corporate/bank trustees and family members or other individual trustees”.  Trust Industry veteran Richard Trumpler of Trumpler Wealth Consulting makes the case for non-corporate trustees.  Read More