The Person You Chose and Never Checked On
Many families spend real time choosing the trust. They fund it carefully. They name someone they trust to run it, and then they do something many people do without noticing.
They treat that person as permanent.
The policy inside the trust gets reviewed. The trust language gets reviewed. The one thing that rarely gets a second look is the person responsible for all of it. A trustee is a living role, and the person filling it ages, moves, loses interest, falls out with the family, or dies. Often without anyone stopping to ask what happens next.
When a trustee stops doing the job, nothing announces it. The document keeps saying the right things while nothing behind it moves.
Last month, we wrote about the policy review nobody makes you do. This is the companion question, and the one people skip even more often.
In this month’s blog, we explore why willing trustees are getting harder to find, how trustee failure quietly shows up in the families we work with, and how a trust protector can give families a way to fix a problem before it becomes a crisis.
At C3 Financial Partners, we help families bring clarity to who is actually carrying out the plan today, confidence that a successor is in place and actually willing, and coordination with the advisors responsible for making sure the plan still rests on someone able to carry it.
The policy gets reviewed. The trust gets reviewed. The person carrying both deserves the same look.
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From the Founder: Insights That Matter
Welcome back to From the Founder.
Todd Healy, Founder of C3 Financial Partners, brings over four decades of experience in guiding families and business owners through the complexities of wealth preservation and legacy planning. His reflections offer clarity, confidence, and coordination, the core principles that define our approach. Here’s what Todd has been thinking about lately:
My wife and I recently spent a few days in Aspen. Before and during the trip, everyone told us the same thing- drink plenty of fluids. The altitude will dehydrate you before you realize it.
I followed the advice. I still ended up in the emergency room dehydrated.
Here is what I did not know. Water alone had diluted my sodium levels. What my body actually needed was fluid with electrolytes.
The advice was accurate. It was also incomplete.
The story came back to me when I read our blog on trustee review. “Choose a good trustee” is the same kind of advice. Widely repeated. Sound advice at the surface. Also incomplete.
Who to choose is only the first question. There are others. What qualities a trustee needs. How those qualities need to hold up as the trust, the beneficiaries, and the trustee’s own life circumstances change over the years. And who has the authority to act when the person originally chosen is no longer the right person for the job.
At altitude, the corrected advice is straightforward. Drink fluids that replace electrolytes. With trusts, the corrected advice is similar. Choose the right trustee, and build in a process to check, over time, whether they are still the right one.
The first decision matters. The second one may matter more.
— Todd Healy
Founder, C3 Financial Partners
You can follow Todd’s ongoing reflections and planning insights on LinkedIn here.
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This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation, offer, or solicitation to buy or sell any security or investment strategy. This information is not tax or legal advice. Consult your tax advisor or attorney regarding your specific situation.
Securities and advisory services are offered only to individuals in jurisdictions where Valmark Securities, Inc. and Valmark Advisers, Inc., and their representatives, are properly licensed. These firms are not registered in any foreign jurisdiction and do not offer services outside the United States.
Securities offered through Valmark Securities, Inc., member FINRA, SIPC. Investment Advisory Services offered through Valmark Advisers, Inc. a Registered Investment Advisor, 130 Springside Drive, Suite 300, Akron, Ohio 44333-2431, 1.800.765.5201. C3 Financial Partners, LLC is a separate entity from Valmark Securities, Inc. and Valmark Advisers, Inc.
