Private Trust Companies

Trusting trustees

When a client is establishing trusts as part of his wealth and succession planning, one of the more difficult decisions can often be whom to appoint as trustee. Once the assets have been transferred into the trusts, they will cease to belong to the client and will be held by the trustee upon the terms of the trusts. Those terms will often confer wide discretions on the trustee as to the investment and distribution of the trust assets and the client may be reticent about such discretions being exercised by an independent professional trustee with whom he has not had any previous dealings.

The appointment of a protector with the power to remove and appoint trustees may be sufficient to reassure the client that his intentions will be respected. Alternatively, a client seeking an active continuing role may wish to reserve certain powers, such as the power to manage the investment of the trust fund. For some clients, particularly when the main asset