Featured Speaker: Enhancing Trust(s):

The number of trusts being created and used by families at all levels of wealth has grown rapidly in the past few decades, creating a "perfect storm:" many, if not most, of these trusts have individuals who have been named as trustee with very little training or knowledge about what it means to be a trustee, and what the role entails. This lack of knowledge makes it hard for trustees to manage trusts for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries. It also puts a strain on relationships in families and between families and their advisors. Further, there is a risk that trusts that are managed by unprepared trustees are more likely to produce "trust fund babies" for whom trusts can often do more harm than good. And, finally, the percentage of society's resources held in trust means that the consequences of the convergence of these factors expand far beyond the families themselves. For an advisor working in this perfect storm, it is especially difficult to productively support a client who is the trustee or beneficiary of a trust. An advisor who serves as a trustee without adequate training also risks doing harm inadvertently. This session will start with an overview of the magnitude of this challenge, and then proceed to provide a broad overview of both technical and non-technical aspects of how to address it, including but not limited to best practices for serving as trustee and working with trustees. Participants will be able to engage in dialogue and explore issues through an interactive, accessible presentation format.