Appointing a professional as executor or trustee offers many advantages:
- professional and experienced management of trusts and estates
- potential for more efficient administration due to specialised knowledge and systems
- independent and objective decision making – this can be crucial if there is potential for disputes between family members preventing conflict at an emotional time.
If you are considering appointing a professional executor or trustee, appointing a trust corporation rather than individual partners of a legal firm offers additional benefits:
- Flexibility – A number of our partners are directors of the trust corporation. This means decisions can be made and documents signed quickly, without reliance on the availability of a particular named individual.
- Continuity – Trust corporations do not face the same risks of incapacity, illness or death as individual executors or trustees; a professional executor or trustee is always available to act on behalf of the estate or trust. Likewise, an individual partner leaving the firm does not impact the management of the estate or trust.
- Fee savings – no need to deal with appointment or retirement of individual trustees (documenting by deed and arranging transfer of assets, which takes time and increases fees) or dealing with compliance burdens such as verifying the identity of individual trustees.
Other important points about our trust corporation
The sole purpose of our trust corporation is to act as professional executor, trustee or attorney. It can be appointed to act as:
- an executor or administrator of an estate;
- a trustee of a lifetime or Will trust; or
- an attorney for property and finance.
But it cannot act as attorney for health and welfare decisions.
The trust corporation can act alone, or alongside other individuals whom you wish to appoint. Whether the trust corporation can be appointed is decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the particular circumstances of the matter.
Our trust corporation is non-trading and does not undertake any business activities, which means it does not pose any financial risk to the estate or trust fund. It does not undertake any work itself but instructs Greenwoods Legal LLP to undertake work on its behalf.
Greenwoods Legal Trust Corporation Limited is a UK incorporated company, registered at Companies House, wholly owned by Greenwoods Legal LLP. A number of the partners of Greenwoods Legal LLP (including the partners within the Wealth Preservation team) are directors of the trust corporation.
