One of our business trends is an increase in estate settlement services. Diem Nguyen, who manages our personal trust team, is our dedicated estate settlement administrator, and she and her team of estate settlement specialists provide exceptional service. Most of our business comes from attorney referrals of existing estates, frequently because the estate settlement is too complicated for the appointed individual to handle. This is different than many other corporate trustees, who only handle estate settlements that follow a preexisting investment management or revocable trust relationship.

There are several reasons for the estate settlement business trend. One is our business reputation and Diem’s skill from administering estates for more than thirty years.  Another is our ability to manage real estate. Our service team has evolved to include a full-time real estate administrator (Matt Woyak), an in-house real estate attorney (Jean Durham), and a CPA with real estate accounting expertise (Jo Stahl). We have also noticed that larger corporate trustees are only willing to handle very large estates (more than $10 million) and smaller corporate trustees do not have dedicated estate settlement specialists. While individual family members are frequently appointed as the estate settlement trustee, this is a complicated area of administration and individuals are poorly equipped to handle conflicts of interest, communicate timely status reports, and provide accountings. 

While we are willing to administer estates with beneficiary disputes and complicated assets, we want to work with estates that have liquidity ($500,000 or more) and are willing to pay our 1.5% fee (with $7,500 minimum).

We would be honored to be considered for an estate settlement appointment. The ideal situation is a future appointment where we are named in a revocable trust or Will and can establish a relationship with the family prior to a death. We are also willing to discuss an ongoing estate settlement relationship that might need professional assistance to manage after a death. If you have an opportunity to discuss, please contact our Director of Fiduciary Sales, Terry Doyle, at (262) 953-2435 or tdoyle@prairietrust.com, or if you have an opportunity in the Madison to Rockford area, contact our Madison Market Director, Jasper Vaccaro at (608) 535-3041 or jvaccaro@prairietrust.com.