WA MAGAZINE JanFeb PDF A - Flipbook - Page 32
TRUST-FRIENDLY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31
WHAT’S IN THE BUNDLE?
Of course,“I work with estate planning
and trusts” is a nebulous thing to say, so
we also asked our people how exactly
they interact with multigenerational
wealth. Some of the results here were
expected: 66% incorporate the estate into
overall high-net-worth client planning.
But somewhere between 30% and 40%
of your fellow advisors focus on succession planning for client-owned business-
es, and a similar number work actively
to keep blended families from tearing
themselves apart over the inheritance.
And then there are the special
purpose vehicles. Special needs trusts
to support incapacitated family members, asset protection trusts as a shield
against litigation, and various charitable and philanthropic structures are
unexpectedly popular.
If you aren’t familiar with these instruments, there’s still time to catch up,
How do you use trust services and estate planning in your practice?
HIGH-NET-WORTH ESTATE
PLANNING
66%
FAMILY BUSINESS
SUCCESSION PLANNING
39%
BLENDED FAMILY
34%
INTERNATIONAL
ESTATE PLANNING
6%
SPECIAL NEEDS TRUST
39%
CHARITABLE GIVING
AND PHILANTHROPY
37%
ASSET PROTECTION TRUST
33%
DIGITAL ASSETS
9%
ECO-FRIENDLY / SUSTAINABLE
3%
RETIREMENT ASSETS
34%
BASIC ESTATE PLANNING AND
AVOIDING INTESTACY
39%
What do you wish trust companies would offer you?
WHITE-LABEL SERVICE /
EMBEDDED TRUST OFFICER
14%
ALTERNATIVE
INVESTMENT SUPPORT
7%
DIGITAL ASSET SUPPORT
6%
BETTER TECHNOLOGY
17%
ACCESS TO ESTATE PLANNERS /
LEGAL EXPERTISE
24%
“HOLISTIC” INSIGHT INTO
HELD-AWAY FAMILY ASSETS
12%
MARKETING AND
CLIENT EDUCATION
11%
32 | JAN/FEB 2025
but every day you dither makes it more
likely you’re falling behind.
Lest we forget the mass affluent, a
lot of your fellow advisors report success integrating estate planning into a
retirement-oriented platform. Get those
beneficiaries settled!
For that matter, rudimentary estate
planning is often the advisor’s responsibility. Once upon a time, we might have
thought it was pushy to bully recalcitrant
clients into getting the basic paperwork
in place, but if anything goes wrong, the
heirs will thank you for your tough love.
SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Most advisors are pretty happy with their
trust company partnerships, but they’re
always looking for differentiators to take
the team to the next level. What do your
colleagues want that they aren’t getting?
About 25% would love better access
to friendly estate planners and other inhouse legal expertise. That part makes
sense. Trust companies often have a lot
of legal talent on the team working for
the same clients, so building a bridge
back to the advisor would help everyone
do better.
Co-branded marketing and educational support is welcome but not yet
considered an essential feature of the
relationship. If anything, a slightly larger
proportion of our audience covets a
purely white-label arrangement where
the trust company vanishes entirely in
client eyes, leaving only the advisor in
the picture.
What’s shocking is that very few
advisors are hungry for either digital
assets in the estate plan or support for
the wider universe of “alts.” Either their
existing partners already provide help in
that direction or they simply don’t need
them yet.
They will.Younger clients will become old ones sooner or later. They’ll
want to make sure their advisors can
work with the assets they’ve accumulated over their lifetimes.
You might not be around to see that
happen. But your successors will. Give
it time.
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