Trust & estate services designed to preserve and transfer your wealth

Trust and estate services help individuals and families administer trusts, settle estates and carry out the instructions established in their estate plans. These services can include serving as trustee or executor, managing trust assets, making distributions to beneficiaries, maintaining records, coordinating tax reporting and handling other fiduciary responsibilities.

Professional trust and estate services can be particularly valuable for families with significant or complex wealth, trusts designed to last for multiple generations, beneficiaries with specialized needs or estates that require substantial administrative expertise.

A will and a trust can both direct how assets are handled, but they work in different ways. A will takes effect at death and provides instructions for distributing assets that pass through your estate. It can also name an executor and guardians for minor children. Assets governed by a will generally go through probate before they are distributed to beneficiaries.

A trust can hold and manage assets during your lifetime and after your death. Depending on the type of trust, it may help assets avoid probate, provide for management of assets if you become incapacitated, establish how and when beneficiaries receive assets, or support tax, charitable and multigenerational wealth planning goals.

You may benefit from a trust if you want greater control over how and when assets are managed or transferred to your family. Trusts can be useful for avoiding probate, providing for minor children or family members with special needs, protecting assets for future generations, planning for incapacity, supporting charitable goals or addressing estate and tax planning considerations.

A trust may be particularly valuable for families with significant or complex assets, multiple generations to consider, business interests or property in more than one state. However, not every family needs a trust, and the appropriate structure depends on your assets, family circumstances and long-term goals. Fiduciary Trust International advisors can help determine whether a trust should be part of your overall estate plan.

A revocable trust can generally be changed or revoked by the person who created it during their lifetime, while an irrevocable trust generally involves giving up some degree of control over the assets transferred to it. Revocable trusts can be useful for managing assets during your lifetime, planning for incapacity and facilitating the transfer of assets at death. Irrevocable trusts are often considered when pursuing objectives such as lifetime gifting, estate tax planning or transferring wealth to future generations.

The best type of trust depends on your goals, financial circumstances, family needs and the assets you want the trust to hold. Common options include revocable living trusts, which can help manage and transfer assets; irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), which are often used to hold life insurance outside of an estate; grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), which can help transfer appreciating assets to future generations; charitable remainder or charitable lead trusts, which combine charitable giving with other planning goals; and special needs trusts, which can provide for individuals with disabilities.

Other structures, such as generation-skipping trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs) and dynasty trusts, may be appropriate for families with more complex wealth transfer objectives.

Because each type of trust has different legal, tax and financial implications, the right structure should be considered as part of your broader estate and wealth plan. Fiduciary Trust International can help determine which type of trusts best support your objectives.

Certain types of irrevocable trusts can help reduce potential estate taxes by removing assets—and, in some cases, their future appreciation—from your taxable estate. Depending on your goals, strategies may include grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) and charitable trusts. The appropriate strategy depends on factors such as the size and composition of your estate, the assets you own, your family circumstances and how much control or access you want to retain.

Because transferring assets to an irrevocable trust can have significant consequences to your overall financial picture, trust strategies should be considered as part of a broader wealth and estate plan and coordinated with your entire financial situation in mind.