Who is Peak Trust Company?
Peak Trust Company is for estate planners looking for a professional trustee, who want reliable and accessible expertise to help them with their client’s complex trust plans.
Peak Trust Company offers the experience and sophistication to help you quickly and accurately establish trusts, backed by easy-to-use ongoing trust administration.
Unlike traditional banks and trust companies, at Peak Trust Company, your trust is our core business.
We provide a highly customized delivery process tailored to your specific needs and an unbundled service structure; providing everything you need but only what you want.
How is Peak Trust Company different?
Peak Trust Company sets itself apart from other providers by offering superior quality and service.
- At Peak Trust Company you get direct access to and prompt responses from decision makers empowered to provide the outcomes you need. There’s no red tape, unnecessary compliance hurdles, or unexpected delays.
- Peak Trust Company delivers with ease and certainty. We are easy to work with, we have the best new account opening process and there are no unnecessary compliance hurdles. Our easy ongoing trust administration and tailored personalized service gives you everything you need. When you call in, you’ll get directly to someone on your dedicated team who is familiar with your account and situation.
- Unlike traditional banks and trust companies, at Peak Trust Company, serving your trust needs is our focus. Peak Trust Company was involved in the creation of the first modern trust legislation that laid the foundation for today’s sophisticated trust planning techniques; no one has worked with these techniques longer than we have.
What does a trustee do?
The trustee is responsible for faithfully discharging duties outlined in the trust document. The terms of a trust are set by the grantor in the trust document when the trust is established.
Trustees can be responsible for any combination of managing trust assets, making distributions, maintaining trust records, hiring legal counsel and other professional services on behalf of the trust, arranging for the completion of trust tax returns, paying trust bills, coordinating care of an incapacitated or disabled beneficiary and more.
Trustees are held to the highest legal standard of care to administer the trusts in their care for the best interests of the beneficiaries in accordance with the grantor’s intent. The terms of the trust determine any specific duties that a trustee has in addition to any general duties required by local, state, or federal law. The trustee or trustees take on the responsibility for all decisions and management aspects of the trust in accordance with the terms of the trust and the grantor’s intent, for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
Using a professional trustee in a preferential trust jurisdiction, enables grantors and beneficiaries located anywhere to take advantage of the best trust laws in the state of the trustee.
Why a corporate trustee versus an individual?
Individuals named as trustee that are friends or family members may find themselves in difficult positions when the role of family member, co-beneficiary, and/or trustee presents a conflict of interest.
A fiduciary position carries with it many requirements including the duty of loyalty and the duty to report to beneficiaries. Many individual trustees do not realize the full extent of the responsibilities of being a trustee and may inadvertently open themselves to a significant amount of liability by unintentionally failing to perform all their fiduciary obligations.
Individual trustees are not subject to any regulatory or audit oversight, whereas corporate trustees are periodically examined by independent auditors and regulated by either state or federal banking regulators. Professional trustees are also subject to liability insurance and bonding requirements.