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Trust & Estates

Preserve, manage, and transfer your legacy in a way that supports your goals across every dimension of your wealth.

You know that building wealth is only one part of your wealth story. You are also focused on using these funds to support your family, enjoy the fruits of your labor, and take care of the next generation. When you establish a trust, you want to know that your money will be preserved, managed, and eventually transferred in a way that will support your goals for every dimension of your wealth.

At First Western Trust, our trust and wealth management teams are held to a fiduciary standard, which means that we are committed to ensuring that your wishes are carried out and that your loved ones are taken care of to the best of our ability. We offer many types of trusts, from living trusts and irrevocable trusts to revocable trusts; we are dedicated to helping you preserve your legacy.

Our Fiduciary Wealth Management Approach

Our trust wealth management team looks at every aspect of your wealth story. We’ll review your retirement planning objectives and provide advice to support you and your family when you’re ready to enjoy your years of hard work.

By reviewing your income and financial balance sheet, our fiduciary wealth management team can provide advice on income and estate tax strategies, methods to fund the educational needs of your children and grandchildren, evaluation of existing life insurance policies, and investment strategies suited to your lifestyle and resources.

If you have started and still own your own business, our trust wealth management services can be structured to help you decide on a business succession strategy and a plan for it to take effect during your lifetime or after your passing.

Why Engage a Corporate Fiduciary Arrangement?

It is common to name family members or close friends to serve as the trustee of a trust or as a personal representative of an estate. These people typically have a personal relationship with the beneficiaries and understand their needs. Also, some trust makers are concerned that a corporate trustee may immediately liquidate family businesses or other unconventional assets, such as real estate, art, and mineral interests, that exist in the trust, when maintaining these assets is important to the family. By choosing a family member to manage their trust and wealth management services, trust makers feel confident that these assets will remain in their family’s possession.

Unfortunately, most family trustees do not have the experience, time or investment background to manage the increasingly complicated tax and administrative duties associated with modern trusts. When they are put in charge of trust wealth management decisions, they are often not equipped to handle them appropriately.

Also, since family trustees are typically not subject to court supervision, intentional and unintentional abuses often occur. These might include such things as “borrowing” from the trust for personal uses, taking unusually large trustee fees, investing in risky ventures, and favoring certain beneficiaries in making discretionary trust distributions.

Hear from our Clients.

Services

  • Serving as your independent professional corporate trustee
  • Providing fiduciary management services
  • Managing and reviewing your investments
  • Reviewing your family estate plan in conjunction with your attorney and accountant
  • Preparing tax returns and accounting for trusts and estates
  • Serving as executor or personal representative in a probate appointment
  • Providing Conservatorship and Guardianship services for minor and disabled beneficiaries
  • Managing specialty assets, such as oil and gas, real estate, farm and ranch properties, and art collections
  • Providing custody of assets and accounting for private trustees
  • Planning for business succession
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What Clients Say about Our Trust & Estate Solutions

“I am very comfortable working with my FW representative and put my trust in him, and FW’s knowledge, to provide me with the best portfolio to meet my family’s needs.” — Joan S.

Ready to learn more about how we can assist you with Trust & Estate Solutions? Let's have a conversation.