Trust Problems Slow Down Asset Transfers

Financial advisors claim they are spending more time fixing the legal documents required to release assets from trusts. Numerous baby boomer clients are due inheritances following their parents’ deaths, but even small errors in trust documents can slow down the asset transfers.

The fact that financial advisors work with numerous outside players (e.g. banks, brokerage firms, investment companies, and attorneys) can also slow down the process, especially if errors exist that require correction on many levels. Many trust companies are attempting to persuade financial advisors to have their clients hire the companies as successor trustees as a way to help eliminate administrative problems.

See Gail Liberman, Advisors Spending More Time On Problems With Trusts, Financial Advisor Magazine (November 2011).

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.