Fiduciaries (trustees & protectors)
Fiduciaries are entrusted with great wealth. Understanding all the issues that face them today is a daunting task. Even within a single jurisdiction, complex rules regarding investments, accounting and taxes abound, and new compliance issues and reporting obligations seem to spring up every day. The issues facing trusts with beneficiaries in multiple jurisdictions are even more complex.
Our wealth structuring team regularly advises clients about the tax implications of the status of their trusts, the choice of trustees or protectors, or distribution decisions. Additionally, we often help to modernize antiquated trust structures so that the trustees can invest efficiently and reduce administrative costs.
In some circumstances we help families create their own fiduciaries. We have advised on the formation of family trust companies and family control structures designed to help wealthy individuals or families get the trust services they need without being at the mercy of outside fiduciaries.
Our fiduciary clients own and administer assets on behalf of trust beneficiaries. They include individuals serving as trustees of trusts worth hundreds of millions; family trust companies formed to provide tailored trust services to one or more families; and institutional trustees requiring advice on trust construction or compliance issues.
Recent work
- Designing and implementing a plan to modernize and consolidate of a series of older trusts, allowing the trustees to administer and invest the trust assets more efficiently.
- Analyzing state income tax issues related to the residence of one or more trustees.
- Working with trustees to understand the fiduciary and income tax issues involved in the administration of complex foreign and domestic trusts, and thereby to maximize tax efficiency.
- Planning and coordinating the creation of a family trust company to provide customized trust services.