Trust & Will announces Nevada-chartered trust company for sub-$10M clients

Trust & Will announced the launch of Trust & Will Trust Company, a Nevada-chartered retail trust company with legal authority to act as a professional corporate trustee, WealthManagement.com reported Oct. 16. The report describes it as the first digital estate-planning platform to serve as a regulated corporate fiduciary.

"With the Trust & Will Trust Company, we are evolving from the platform that helps families create an estate plan into the fiduciary that can carry one out," said co-founder and CEO Cody Barbo. Barbo told Wealth Management that established trust companies offer a vast array of options and strong service but have consistently pushed upmarket to maintain it. Minimums at those firms often reach into the tens of millions of dollars, he said, leaving households below $10 million largely unserved.

The service will carry no minimum account size and will be built largely, though not solely, on a directed trustee model. It will be delivered by software with a human fiduciary behind it. Recordkeeping and accounting, trust tax return preparation and filing, distribution decisions made under the terms of the trust, and beneficiary communication and reporting are all in scope. Fees will be based on account value and the nature of the assets held in trust, and Barbo said the goal is to shorten the time it takes for inheritances to reach beneficiaries.

The directed trustee structure means administration sits with the trustee while investment direction comes from elsewhere. An advisor could keep the investment relationship on assets held in a trust the new company administers. The report does not say who directs investments or whether the firm intends to work alongside outside advisors.

Trust & Will did not disclose a fee schedule, so advisors cannot yet compare pricing with existing corporate trustees. The report also does not explain how the Nevada charter affects where a trust is administered or how it is taxed.