The right advisor-friendly trust company will simplify the process and help you deliver effective solutions for your clients. You’ll want to seek a partner with a shared mission and values, flexible services, adaptability, and collaboration.

Naming a trusted national trust company as a trustee on revocable trusts helps financial advisors, investment managers, insurance professionals, and family offices build lasting relationships with future generations.

Essential Services

Investment advisors need to be able to offer trust services as part of their holistic approach to managing wealth. They can often do so without a partnership with a trusted trust company that understands their client’s unique needs and is committed to serving them.

When choosing a trustee partner, look for one adaptable to the ever-changing financial landscape that offers a culture of collaboration and transparency. Select a company that prioritizes its clients’ success and empowers financial advisors through ongoing training, mentorship, and professional growth opportunities.

Look for a trusted company that offers directorships for family members and independent professionals through directed trusts, which bifurcates the trust administration and investment management functions. This allows the asset manager or advisor to remain the primary financial professional to their client and will enable them to maintain control over their relationship and fees. Enhanced credibility with clients can also result from this type of arrangement.

Seamless Collaboration

The trust company’s ability to work seamlessly with the advisor – rather than compete – is a big advantage. This allows the financial advisor to build a relationship with clients and to avoid poaching from competing companies that might otherwise gain access to a client’s wealth management, trust services or estate plan.

In addition, some trust companies provide ideas on how to move existing trusted assets into the advisor’s management to retain a client. This type of collaboration, when done well, helps both parties and keeps clients happy.

The advisor Friendly Trust on this list all offer a unique model that gives financial advisors the option of acting as their formal trustees but relying on the expertise of the trust company for administration and investment management. This nationally chartered, non-depository trust company offers agency trustee services through its partnership.

Expertise and Resources

Trillions of dollars are shifting generationally, and investors expect their financial advisors to be able to provide support in areas such as trust services, estate planning, philanthropic giving, tax optimization and more. Yet, most investment advisors must prepare to handle fiduciary duties as trustees or wish to maintain their core competency of providing investment management services.

In these situations, it makes sense for advisors to partner with trusted providers specializing in trust administration whose relationship-building process prioritizes collaboration. Advisors can then offer their clients comprehensive trust services that complement their existing portfolio of investments without sacrificing the strong personal relationships they have built with their clients.

PTC is one of the nation’s largest independent corporate trustees and has been named to WealthAdvisor’s annual list of America’s Most Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies eight years in a row. In addition, PTC offers a unique, innovative solution that allows financial advisors to delegate investment management responsibility to their trusted partners while managing the administrative and relationship aspects of a client’s trust assets.

Personalized Solutions

The best advisor-friendly trust companies can provide personalized solutions for their clients and partners. They work with financial advisors to create customized strategies for transferring wealth and managing estate plans. This collaboration can increase advisors’ credibility and peace of mind for their clients.

Traditional all-in-one trust companies obscure cash flows by charging separate fees for investment management services, fiduciary risk and other soft non-value-added services. Advisor-friendly trusts can offer directorships, or directed trusts, which separate these services from their corporate duties. This allows the advisor to retain control of the underlying assets and provides clearer insight into their overall fee structure.

Choosing an advisor-friendly trust company can be challenging. While objective criteria are important, subjective factors often make a difference. Understanding what to look for can help advisors find a trusted partner to deliver lasting value for their clients and businesses.