America’s Most Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies Showcase - Flipbook - Page 15
2026 AMERICA’S MOST ADVISOR-FRIENDLY TRUST COMPANIES
In general, the tax cuts preserve all the
existing advantages of holding wealth
in trust instead of personally, so it’s
not going to hurt to at least run the
numbers. We thought for a while that
family-owned businesses would get
an advantage over those owned by a
trust, but that wasn’t the case after all.
The final language fixes that disparity,
and all pass-through businesses get
the same rate. If your clients want to
sell someday and reduce their ultimate
capital gain liability, a trust in a low-tax
state is the way to go.
THE LARGEST WEALTH
TRANSFER IN HISTORY
From a wealth management
perspective, the allure of moving
assets into trusts increases every year.
The past few years were relatively quiet
on the surface—not a lot of movement
on the state statute level as the world
held its breath for bigger developments
around the world—but the calm only
delays the demographic storm ahead.
The older Baby Boomers are retired,
and while they’re fighting the inevitable
as well as humanly possible, they’re
still dying at a rate of about 1 million a
year. Over the next 30–35 years, their
heirs are on track to inherit roughly
$3 billion a day or over $1 trillion
annually. And as those assets transfer,
the kids are rarely prepared to handle
the responsibilities.
When a client dies, the advisor has a
chance to retain the account, but the
relationship that has been nurtured
over the years or even decades
evaporates immediately. Unless
you’ve done the work to extend that
relationship to the next generation,
you’ll always be viewed as mom or
dad’s money manager, just another
heirloom for the new generation to
deliberate around and then discard.
They want to follow their own ideas
about money. We can doubt the
long-term wisdom of pure robot
advice and other novelties, but the
numbers already tell the story there:
No matter how loyal you were to mom
and dad, most heirs fire the grantor’s
advisor anyway.
Every day between now and 2050,
the equivalent of another $3 billion
in client accounts reaches that
decision point. Trusts, by definition,
don’t die with the original flesh-andblood client, so those assets can
theoretically stay with the original
advisor for decades beyond the
generational transfer—all it takes is
the right language on the documents,
and you have the opportunity to
remain in the picture with the next
generation for years to come.
That’s often a powerful argument
where your clients are concerned.
They put their money in your hands
because they’re convinced you’ll do
the best job protecting it and helping
it grow. If their estate plan is to keep
assets in trust for their heirs rather
than have them inherit funds outright,
it’s only logical they would prefer to
have you, rather than an unknown
entity, manage the assets.
However, the time to have the
conversation and finalize the
paperwork is before your clients die
or become incapacitated. They’re
already dying at the rate of $3 billion a
day, which is why the trust industry—
advisor friendly and otherwise—spent
the past decade capturing assets
while the rest of us pondered the
hypotheticals. Fortunately, as your
clients’ trusted advisor, you are
perfectly positioned to provide a
solution to their dilemma of “who
should we name as successor trustee,
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and who do we want to manage the
trust assets?”
All you need to do is avail yourself
of the expertise and reputation
provided by the new breed of
corporate trust companies that will
allow you to manage the trust assets
on your custodial platform of choice
and keep your seat as the family’s
trusted advisor in either a directed or
delegated capacity.
Although many of these trust
providers offer only the “directed”
option, several have the flexibility
to accommodate both options
depending on the governing state
statute, family dynamics, and
particular needs of the grantors. What
is most important, with both options,
is that the advisor cannot be simply
“kicked to the curb” by the grantor’s
heirs. You can’t get fired.
The landscape hasn’t shifted. The
demographic tidal wave is still
coming. In circumstances like these,
I’m thinking we’ll see the most
strategic players in the business start
consolidating in order to get a bigger
piece of the action.
Odds are good a lot of the companies
in this guide will be buyers. Some,
however, will inevitably get an offer
too rich to refuse as larger institutions
recognize the quality of this particular
line of business. Stress in the
financial system will only accelerate
consolidation. Weaker players (not
profiled in this guide) will vanish,
leaving their accounts in surer hands.
PICKING A PARTNER
In the meantime, advisors who can
recommend the right solutions have a
competitive edge on those who have,
for all practical purposes, decided to
bury their heads in the sand.
