Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM

By John P.C. Duncan & Anita M. Sarafa

Multi-participant trusts¹ have become immensely popular. These trusts replace the single, all-powerful trustee with a host of independent decisionmakers, all deriving their authority directly from the trust instrument.

At first, we saw multi-trustee trusts whose co-trustees, instead of sharing all trustee powers as was traditional, were each assigned discrete roles. That approach quickly evolved into today's multi-participant trusts that have a directed trustee — plus: At a minimum, there's also a trust advisor or investment committee with sole power over all investment decisions or a particular asset, such as a closely held company. Sometimes, there's also another trust advisor to advise the trustee on issues concerning beneficiaries. Often, one or more trust protectors are added as watch-dogs over the trustee or trust advisors, or to amend the trust instrument, review accountings, change the governing law of the trust or remove and replace or consent to the actions of the trustee or another participant. A distributions committee might round out this assemblage of performers for a single trust.

Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
GSTs	Family Offices
Private Foundations	Life Insurance
2010 Tax Act News	Industry Trends Surveys

E-Newsletter Signup

Poll

Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
GSTs	Family Offices
Private Foundations	Life Insurance
2010 Tax Act News	Industry Trends Surveys

E-Newsletter Signup

2011 Trust Glossary

Click here to download the 2011 Trust Glossary

50 Years Ago This Month

Click here to read the issue.

50 years ago, in May 1962, we featured articles such as: "Future of Canadian Trusteeship" by Arthur H. Mingay", "Training Trust Employees" by Ian M. Marr, "What is a Trust Officer?" by Eric J. Brown, and "Selling Services" by Donald I. Webb.

Conrad Teitell's Guide to Tax Benefits For Charitable Gifts

Click here to view the most up to date guide (September 2011)

Press Releases