America’s Most Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies Showcase - Flipbook - Page 14
2026 AMERICA’S MOST ADVISOR-FRIENDLY TRUST COMPANIES
CLIENTS LOVE YOUR DYNASTIC INSIGHT
When advisors offer estate planning support, their clients tend to respond favorably.
Only 17% of the people SmartAsset polled say the estate plan is the “most
underutilized” part of the platform. Tax and retirement planning are less popular!
Other
Debt Management
3.60%
4.32%
Tax Planning
Educational
Savings Planning
35.25%
5.04%
Small Business
Planning
10.79%
Retirement
Planning
Estate Planning
23.74%
17.27%
Source: SmartAsset Financial Advisor Survey
They’re happy to stick to their end of
the trust relationship and earn their fee
from administration, fiduciary services,
and other specialized functions,
leaving the way the trust assets
are managed to the advisors who
introduce the accounts.
These companies have staked
their future growth on their ability
to work with advisors instead of
against you. They like advisors. They
know the culture and the strategic
considerations you deal with every
day. We call them “advisor friendly”
because that’s what they are.
Every year, we profile the companies
that demonstrate they want to
work with you. Some are massive,
dominating their jurisdiction; others work
on a boutique scale. Many specialize in
various forms of trusts or hard-to-place
assets. Most provide support to help
their partners market themselves as trust
experts to clients who want this level
of service and will get it from someone,
one way or another.
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DEATH AND TAXES ARE ETERNAL
Despite all the media outrage (or
maybe because of it), Congress has
yet to weaken the proposition for
wealthy individuals moving their money
into trusts at all. There’s no legislation,
and it’s vanishingly unlikely that anyone
in Washington will rock the boat for the
foreseeable future.
Start with one of the few sore spots
lingering in the post-COVID-19 tax
code: federal treatment of state
and local income tax. Losing those
deductions is a drag for someone who
lives in a high-tax jurisdiction and has
assets that throw off a lot of income—a
taxable investment portfolio qualifies,
but local business operations or real
estate don’t.
The logical solution is to shift those
assets into an out-of-state trust where
the loss of deductibility no longer
hurts. Several top-tier trust states
don’t have an income tax or, at the
very least, refuse to tax nonresidents
on capital gains.
In places such as Nevada, this
basic arbitrage has turned crossborder trust activity into a substantial
business, beckoning money from
neighboring California in particular.
Even those who have already used
their gift and generation-skipping
transfer tax exemptions now have
an extra $5.5 million apiece to take
advantage of this.
Meanwhile, existing trusts in high-tax
jurisdictions now look less attractive,
so this is an opportunity for advisors
to talk with living grantors (or their
successor trustees) about moving
the trust to reduce long-term drag.
The window may be narrow, but your
clients should have at least until 2026
to make their moves. Don’t waste time.
