Trustee services are important to making sure your trust is administered correctly. It can be difficult to give up the control of your trust money to an outside company.  The extra trustee fees gives people doubt. Often, individuals will hire friends or family members to serve as trustee for their trust. Sometimes this is a great idea, but sometimes it is not. (more…)

A bank trust company is a corporation that acts as an agent, fiduciary, or trustee. It is a trust company within a bank. Almost every city has a bank trust company. Not all states have the same quality trust law. South Dakota trust law offers the most control and choice for everyone.

Examples of a bank trust company are CoAmerica, JP Morgan Trust Company, SunTrust, and Frost Trust Company.

The term “bank” usually refers to those institutions dealing strictly with deposits, and loans. A trust company is a corporate trustee that can be tied or not tied to a bank and just offers trustee services. (more…)

Do you write your own blog? I do.

Why?

At my core, I am a geek/nerd who loves to learn, especially about why's and how's.

Connecting the dots that are not obvious fascinates me. I always wanted to be a history professor.

The Q&A below acts as a template anyone can ask themselves to start writing interesting blogs. If someone asks you, do you write your own blog, you can say yes because I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge. (more…)

Finding cost efficient trustee fees frustrates many people. Wealthy and affluent people find using trustee services daunting.

Why?

Nobody understands the process of how corporate trustee fees calculations. Nobody understands exactly what a trustee does.

This 700 year old industry never had true external competition. No competition means no motivation for innovation.

Until now...

This definitive guide on cost efficient trustee fees will pull back the curtains on what corporate trustees do and how they charge their fees. With it, you can use a trust company with trustee fees on your terms. Our trustee fee schedule forces us to be effective and mindful.     (more…)

What is the Secure Act?

In 2019, the House of Representatives passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, known as the Secure Act.

The purpose could help Americans save for retirement. Unfortunately, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, and Roth IRAs will have their value reduced.

Waiting for Senate approval, the Secure Act gives non-spouse beneficiaries 10 years to pay out all the money of an IRA. The effect to beneficiaries is a huge tax hit for distributions.

Essentially, this could place beneficiaries in a higher tax bracket.  (more…)

In the US Supreme Court trust case of Kaestner vs. North Carolina the justices ruled 9-0 in favor of the taxpayer. This trust case gives everyone clear rules on taxation of trusts when different parties are in different states. In nearly a century no other trust case such as the Kaestner vs. North Carolina holds the same level of importance. What importance does this trust case have for everyone? (more…)

Wealthy families face difficult questions - giving it all away wisely. To quote the Notorious B.I.G., "I don't know what they want from me/It's like the more money we come across/The more problems we see."  David Green provided a strong foundation to solve this issue.  Any society throughout history gives different answers. What worked in the 1900s might not work today. The type of wealth also makes the question difficult. To make the question more vexing today - the great disparity of wealth. Families wrestle how the next generation should be stewards of that wealth. Giving it all away without destroying future family members only has vague answers. Some families seek guidance from religion and others philosophy. Last week I heard Mr. David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby, speak on this topic to 10 people. the graciousness of his time amazed me.  Notably, the evergreen guidance provided by David Green gives anyone food for thought.

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Advisors in transition have reached a pain point needing a solution. They want a natural and easy solution to solve that pain point.

Examples of those pain points: Large wirehouses taking 50% or more of the revenue; stale RIA firms with no succession plan and/or a need for intellectual freedom in this new world; and more.

Any advisor in transition starts the search with the Internet. The success of any advisor in transition depends on 3 easy tips.

First, let's talk about why these tips work by looking at the past, present, and future of the financial advisor industry.

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The independent journalists at The Wealth Advisor, the voice of the financial advisor community, has selected Wealth Advisors Trust as one of their top choices for an advisor friendly trust company in 2019.

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