Trust Protector

November 21, 2013. Early in my education, I was slightly amazed at the number of additions and permutations that could be made with basic estate planning ingredients. Though simple, the first to catch my eye was the “trust protector.” Used less often than is perhaps beneficial to estate plans, it is essentially a failsafe. Often enough, individuals and families are content or well-satisfied with their choice of trustee, alternate trustee, successor trustee, and so on. But there may be some uncertainty or concern, especially if the trustee has some relationship to the family outside of the instrument. A trust protector provisions allows a trust protector to step in and intervene if there is some form of mismanagement occurring by the trustee. This could mean the fiduciary abusing their responsibilities, not treating beneficiaries equally, or generally not behaving in the best interests of the beneficiaries according to the terms of the trust. With carefully scripted and enumerated powers, a protector would be able to remove the current trustee and, as determined by the trust, nominate and appoint a successor. Of course, this might beg the simple question of who watches the watcher, but appointment of an independent individual to the role will be about as certain as we can get regarding their impartiality and fair intervention. It should also be noted that the trust protector can be given fairly deified powers as determined by state statute, and so have to be careful and correctly crafted as the protector may even, for example, make administrative, investment, or disposition changes to account for changes in the law or the beneficiaries’ circumstances. To learn more about the services that Goosmann Trust Law Counsel provides visit www.trustlawcounsel.com, email us at info@goosmannlaw.com or call 712.226.4000.