“ At LNW, the creation and management of trusts is never strictly transactional, akin to a private ATM for dispensing assets.”
— Lee-Norah Sanzo, LNW Wealth Manager
In the next two decades, more than $70 trillion in inheritance is expected to be passed down to family members or charities in the United States, much of it most likely distributed through various types of trusts. Whether all these trusts perform as intended is another matter. That will greatly depend on how well they are structured and managed.
Having advised on trusts for more than two decades, I have seen that for trusts to work well, especially over many generations, many different things need to be carefully considered and aligned up front: assets certainly, but also family member aspirations, personalities, abilities, and even unspoken fears and concerns for the future.
This is why at LNW, the creation and management of trusts is never strictly transactional, akin to a private ATM for dispensing assets. Trusts at LNW are grounded in the relationships we develop with our clients (who are usually the trust creators), their family members and other beneficiaries, as well as their outside advisors, including at times business partners.
Here are the different ways we work to make sure any trust you establish functions as intended now and over many generations.
1. Exploring Trust Strategies and Options
Your specific needs and goals should determine the type of trust. There are many inherent benefits to transferring ownership of assets to a trust (see text at right). The tricky part is deciding which type of trust will work best for a particular need and/or goal and then defining the terms of the trust. This revolves around two foundational questions:
- Whom do you want this trust to benefit, how, and when?
- Which assets will you transfer to this trust and when?
LNW’s in-house trust experts working with LNW advisor teams help answer these key questions and many more in context of an overall trust strategy. Well-thought-out answers take time and lay the foundation for future success.
We are not in any hurry at LNW to rush you into a trust or a particular type of trust. Trust planning is like designing a house. Lots of advance planning is required to make sure the structure will serve your needs for decades and even generations. Ultimately, it will not matter if your trust is making distributions in a timely manner if the money is being squandered by the people receiving it. Or if the distribution levels are too high and deplete the trust or too low to be meaningful.
The great thing about trusts at LNW is that we help you to customize the terms of each trust based on a thorough understanding of your situation and life goals. With one of the Laird Norton trust companies as trustee, we can then see to it that the terms of each trust are carried out as you intend.
Benefits of a Trust
Depending on its structure, a trust can do all these things:
- Allow you to control which of your assets go to whom, when, and how
- Safeguard your assets from creditors and unintended beneficiaries such as ex-spouses
- Take assets out of your estate for tax purposes
- Keep your assets and the terms of their distribution private
- Keep your assets out of probate after you are gone
2. Advising the Attorney(s) Drafting the Trust Document
Trust documents should not be drafted without the end result in mind. LNW trust and estate planning experts, well-informed about what you want to accomplish, will then work with your estate planning attorney. We will collaborate and advise on which trust(s) will work best for your situation, the general terms of each trust, and whether the final documents address your unique aspirations and concerns. This can save a great deal of time in drafting but more importantly, it assures that the final trust documents are aligned with your finances, wealth plan, estate plan and legacy goals.
We also often work closely with clients’ CPAs to determine which specific assets are best transferred to each trust and when, based on considerations such as tax levels, cash flow, legacy impact and beneficiaries’ needs.
1 Trust =
3 Stakeholders
Each trust actually serves three stakeholders:
- The grantor(s) – the person or entity who sets up the trust and funds it. This can be an individual, a court (if there is a settlement) or an entity (business, nonprofit, LLC or partnership).
- The beneficiary(ies) – the person or entity that receives income from the trust.
- The remainderer – the person or entity that gets trust distributions after the beneficiaries.
Doing what is best for each of the three stakeholders takes planning, coordination and experience dealing with family priorities and dynamics.
3. The Laird Norton Trust Companies
as Trustee or Co-Trustee
The trustee is critical to how well your trust performs. Once any trust is created, a trustee must be named to administer and manage it. LNW clients benefit from access to two trust companies that can serve as trustee, depending on where the trust is based: the Laird Norton Wetherby Trust Company, LLC, operating in Washington State since 1967; and the LNW Trust Company of South Dakota, LLC based in Sioux Falls and serviced from our Seattle office. Both trust companies manage LNW client trusts at the highest level of fiduciary care.
As the trustee, we can invest the financial assets within your trust according to an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) developed explicitly for the trust. Each trust’s IPS reflects a specific level of targeted investment risk and return based on the intended longevity of the trust, desired distribution levels, your other sources of income and investments, as well as your wishes and concerns as grantor of the trust, such as a focus on impact investing.
Over time, the trust can own not just financial assets but also real estate, collectibles and shares of a business or partnership interests, some of which could be located in different states or outside the U.S. As trustee, we are able to manage a wide variety of trust assets, performing income collection, bill pay, accounting, tax reporting and regulatory filings. In all the work we do for each trust, we abide by the fiduciary standard, which is to act in the best interest of the multiple stakeholders each trust serves.
4. Listening, Informing, Advising Trust Beneficiaries
A trust should be a positive force in the lives of the people and organizations it is intended to benefit. Making that happen is what I call bringing a trust to life, and a lot of that has to do with how we as the trustee or co-trustee work with the beneficiaries as they navigate opportunities and challenges in their lives. When the beneficiaries include nonprofit organizations, our trust advisors are able to seek input from our in-house experts on philanthropy and nonprofit asset management.
It is extremely rewarding for us to see the beneficiaries of trusts mature and come into their own. We discuss their personal taxes (trust distributions impact personal taxes plus the trust has its own tax filing), risk management, investment management, insurance, and also major life decisions if they ask: job offers/changes, starting a business, buying a house, prenuptial agreements. Our trust advisors can draw on all of LNW’s in-house expertise to inform and educate the beneficiaries about their trusts. And I think our clients value that and take comfort in knowing this level of care will continue for many generations.
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When Do You Tell Beneficiaries?
State laws determine when the trustee must inform beneficiaries of their status. For trusts based in Washington State, beneficiaries who are 18 years old or above must be informed of a trust in their benefit; going forward, they are enrolled to receive all trust statements and documents sent out by the trustee. Also, should they enter into a prenuptial agreement, they must disclose that they are the beneficiary of a trust(s). By contrast, trusts based in South Dakota do not have to notify the beneficiaries, allowing for more flexibility.
Bottom line: There is no easy answer as to when to tell family members and others that they are the beneficiaries of a trust. Many of our clients choose to inform children/grandchildren relatively early (as teenagers or young adults) and involve us in preparing their young people to responsibility handle that inheritance.
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Staying the Course
I hope you by now have an idea of how we can work with you, your family and outside advisors to put trusts in place that allow hopes for the future to be realized and fears to be addressed and mitigated. Having started out as a trust company in 1967, LNW has institutional knowledge and decades of experience advising on trusts and then managing those trusts over many generations. If you want to explore what a trust can do for you and your family, please start by reaching out to the LNW trust services team.
