America’s Most Advisor-Friendly Trust Companies Showcase - Flipbook - Page 37
2026
2025 AMERICA’S MOST ADVISOR-FRIENDLY TRUST COMPANIES
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Asset Protection Trust: Any trust designed to protect property
from potential creditors, court judgment or other legal liability.
anticipated investment returns from the grantor to the heirs while
generating income in life.
Beneficiary: Person or entity entitled to receive benefits from a
will, insurance policy, trust agreement or employee benefit plan.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT): Typically used to shelter
an insurance death benefit from estate taxes and may provide
liquidity to pay estate taxes and settlement costs. A trust is
created, then the trust purchases a life insurance policy.
Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT): An irrevocable trust that
generates income for a fixed period (up to 20 years or a lifetime)
and then turns remaining assets over to a selected charity.
Irrevocable Trust: A trust that, by its terms, cannot be revoked or
changed by the grantor.
Corporate Trustee: A trust institution serving as trustee.
Living Trust: A trust that is operative during the lifetime of the
grantor, as opposed to a trust under will or a testamentary trust.
Also known as an inter vivos trust.
Crummey: A trust specifically designed to delay beneficiary
access to the underlying assets while circumventing the annual gift
tax exclusion.
Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP): A mechanism
for providing income to a surviving spouse in life while retaining
the assets (and deferring estate taxes) for successor beneficiaries.
Used to lock in marital deductions.
Delegated Trust: An arrangement that allows the trustee to
assign responsibility for managing the trust’s assets to an outside
advisor. (See also: Directed Trust.)
Remainderman: The person who is entitled to an estate after the
prior estate has expired.
Directed Trust: An arrangement that allows the advisor to hand
off the responsibility and burden of administering a trust to an
outside corporate trustee but retains control over how the assets
are invested. (See also: Delegated Trust.)
Revocable Trust: A trust that by its terms may be terminated by
the settlor or by another person.
Directed Trust Company: Any corporate trustee that supports
and encourages directed trust relationships. These companies are
generally not interested in managing the assets themselves and so
have little or no motive to replace existing advisors.
Special Needs Trust: A vehicle that provides for disabled
beneficiaries while preserving eligibility for Social Security and
other means-tested benefits.
Spendthrift: When a trust is designed to prevent beneficiaries
from making decisions around the underlying assets.
Dynasty Trust: While some states force trusts to terminate after
a few generations, others allow trusts to operate for centuries or
even, theoretically, forever. These long-lasting arrangements are
known as dynasty or “perpetual” trusts.
Successor Trustee: Person or institution named in the trust
document who will take over should the first trustee die, resign or
otherwise become unable to act.
Estate: The real and personal property of a decedent; a specific
interest in property.
Trust: An entity that holds assets for the benefit of certain other
persons or entities.
Fiduciary: An individual or entity in a position of trust who has
accepted the duty of acting for the benefit of another.
Trustee: Person or institution who manages and distributes
another’s assets according to the instructions in the trust
document.
Generation-Skipping Tax (GST): A tax levied on gifts to
people separated from the donor by more than one generation:
grandparent to grandchild, for example.
Uniform Trust Code States: Many states have attempted to
streamline and standardize their trust rules by adopting these
provisions as their model.
Grantor/Settlor: A person who transfers property, creator of a trust.
Grantor-Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT): An irrevocable trust
that pays the grantor an annuity for a fixed period, after which
remaining assets go to an assigned beneficiary. Used to shift
Unitrust: An irrevocable trust that pays a beneficiary a preset
percentage of the trust’s net asset value annually.
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