Answering the questions of a lifetime.
Clear explanations you can trust
Helping you become comfortable with how trusts work is as important to us as listening closely to your goals for the future. You should be confident that the assets you’ve built over a lifetime are in good hands—no jargon, no uncertainty.
Trust
A document creating a legal entity that is obligated to hold, manage, and distribute assets according to your predetermined wishes.
Will
A document determining where a person’s assets go after death, often requiring the slow and costly step of validation in a public probate court.
Revocable Trust
A trust that can be changed or ended by the grantor, who typically owns the assets while alive. Income and/or estate taxes resulting from those assets may therefore still be tied to the grantor.
Irrevocable Trust
A trust that cannot be changed and exists as a separate legal entity from its grantor. Since the trust owns the assets, resulting income and/or estate taxes may be minimized for the grantor.
Grantor/Settlor
The person or organization creating a trust and providing the assets that the trust will hold and manage, in addition to specifying who benefits.
Beneficiary
A person or organization named to benefit from the assets held by a trust, either now or in the future.
Trustee
The person or firm administering a trust for the benefit of others, under obligation to execute the trust as drafted and manage its assets and property.
Executor/Personal Representative
A person named to settle someone’s estate upon their death, with the main duty of carrying out the wishes set forth in a last will and testament.
Trust Protector
A person or firm chosen to oversee trustee performance, often with the power to appoint new trustees if a trust document is not being honored.
Investment Advisor
A person or firm qualified to buy and sell invested assets held by a trust in order to meet its goals, as well as managing those assets responsibly.
Impartiality
As outside professionals, we can help prevent personal histories and emotions from clouding your legacy to family and loved ones.
Convenience
Individual trustees can easily be overwhelmed by trust complexities, but our team of specialists carries out your wishes with speed and simplicity.
Expertise
We have administered a wide variety of trusts over the past century, with credentialed trust officers averaging 15 years of experience.
Continuity
Because a trust can often outlast a single lifetime, we emphasize smooth, seamless management over generations—just as we have since 1928.
Transparency
Professional accounting and record-keeping systems give you a clear picture of your trust accounts while meeting all legal standards.
Access
With multiple team members dedicated to your accounts, you can reach us easily for a prompt personal response—no call centers, no red tape.
Value
Our cross-functional teams can help you obtain additional professional resources at reasonable cost, with a focus on managing expenses.
Communication
We proactively help your beneficiaries stay involved and informed about important decisions, so that everyone is on the same page.
Support
Your attorney, accountant, or other financial advisors will find us willing partners, respectful of their roles and quick to provide effective support.
Flexibility
Trusts are formed under state law, so our status as a nationally chartered trust bank lets you establish your trust anywhere in the U.S.
Consultation
We’ll listen carefully to your personal and legacy goals as part of a discussion with your estate planning attorney, advisors, and other professionals in the drafting or amendment of your trust documents.
Designation as Trustee
When named the successor trustee to the grantor of a revocable trust, we do not become acting trustee until the previous acting trustee resigns or dies. In the event of grantor death, or when designated trustee of an irrevocable trust, we immediately assume responsibility for the trust’s administration.
Administration
A dedicated three-person team handles your estate’s accounting, record-keeping, tax reporting and more, while providing fast answers when you have questions or important life changes.
Distribution
We carry out smooth, consistent distribution of trust income and principle to named beneficiaries, while keeping everything up to date as your family evolves over time.
Communication
To keep everyone on the same page, we maintain clear lines of communication with all beneficiaries, grantors, and other professionals.
Talk with us today
For answers that will help you feel confident about your legacy, connect now with a trust partner that leaves nothing to question.