Trustee and Beneficiary Duties

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Modern Trusts: Roles and Responsibilities
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Trusts are often used for tax efficient wealth transfer and liability protection. In exchange for these benefits, however, trusts create certain obligations. Rooted in ancient times, the rules governing trusts are not always intuitive. Understanding their genesis can help us better understand the roles and responsibilities they create and how to apply them apply in a modern context. Whether you are a trustee, beneficiary or thinking of creating a trust, understanding the basics of how a trusts is created and the roles and responsibilities that result, is critical to their success.

Excellent Opportunity: The Modern Dynasty Trust/Family Bank
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A Dynasty Trust is often referred to as a family bank since it serves as a primary resource for the funding of the needs of a family's beneficiaries in successive generations. Given the unsteady economic times and tax uncertainty, there is no better time than now for wealthy families to establish a Dynasty Trust to achieve optimum results, including tax advantages, flexibility, and control.

Seminar 5: Being an Effective Trustee and a Responsible Beneficiary
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A trustee of family trusts must understand the legal duties and deliver them with a keen appreciation of family dynamics. We will discuss the range of trustee and beneficiary responsibilities as well as practical tips for making the trustee-beneficiary relationship work effectively. Members will share their experiences as trustees.

The Engaged Beneficiary: What You Need to Know
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What does it mean to be an engaged and responsible beneficiary? We will explore the roles and responsibilities of a trustee, and learn from a father-daughter team about how they make the trustee-beneficiary relationship work. We will understand the roles each party plays and how to effectively approach trust-related communications.Robert Hammett, Vice President, ChiFam LLCStephanie Hammett, ChiFam LLC, NextGenSarah Kerr Severson, Partner, Schiff Hardin, LLC

Life Insurance Audits Versus Life Insurance Reviews
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A Life insurance audit is an everything-to-gain, nothing-to-lose proposition for a trustee of a trust that owns life insurance where significant planning is in place. A proper, thorough audit is needed to mitigate the fiduciary liability. It also starts with understanding the difference between a Life Insurance Review and a Life Insurance Audit.

Impact Investing: Considerations for Trustees
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As more and more investors look to implement impact investment strategies, interesting questions are being raised in the context of impact investing by fiduciaries appointed to administer a trust for beneficiaries. Suppose the beneficiary of a multi-generational, non-charitable trust is interested in integrating her values in a trust established for her benefit. How should a trustee determine if the request is consistent with the trustee’s duties under the Prudent Investor Rule?

Estate Planning Considerations for the Modern Family
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The traditional nuclear family is no longer the presumption. With multiple demographic trends including samesex marriages, blended families, and cohabitation alongside different paths to parenthood, including adoption and assisted reproductive technologies, there are numerous estate planning challenges that ultra-high net worth families and their advisors must now consider. Advisors must become familiar with the needs and nuances that are unique to modern family members, structures, and dynamics.

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) May Now Serve as Trust Advisors in Tennessee
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Recent statutory changes in Tennessee law has authorized the separation of the traditional trustee roles by allowing for the appointment of a Trust Advisor (also referred to as a Trust Protector) who can have the authority to “direct” an exercise of a power held by the Trustee, including direction concerning investment and distribution decisions. In addition to several changes to the law, it added a new Part 13 that permits the creation of Special Purpose Entities to serve as Trust Advisors for trusts for which a Tennessee corporate fiduciary is serving as Trustee.

Family Banks: Personal Commitment, Accountability and Multi-Generational Mentoring
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Over the past decade, matriarchs and patriarchs of successful families have been shifting their focus from their children to a broader group of individuals, such as grandchildren, siblings, and nieces. Often, they choose to create family banks, which are typically trusts that are funded to help individuals pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, venture philanthropy, and knowledge in a structured and more-likely-to-succeed manner. Family banks can be customized to fit a family’s agenda, and the risks inherent in family banks can be thoughtfully managed.

U.S. Reporting Checklist for Foreign Trusts
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Trusts classified as foreign for U.S. tax purposes, whether established under the law of a U.S. state or of an offshore jurisdiction, must review whether they have any U.S. tax or information reporting filings to make in 2019 with regard to income earned and distributions made in 2018. This article provides trust officers and family advisers with a summary checklist, including other filing and reporting requirements for foreign trusts.