Outsourcing Administration

The Revocable Living Trust is a popular and effective financial planning tool. Revocable trusts allow people to provide for themselves, their loved ones and ultimately to transfer their estate. When your client outsources their trust's administration, ING Trust will serve as 'agent for trustee' or trustee for their revocable living trust. Your client always reserves the right to change trustees should their circumstances change in the future. Outsourcing trust administration is a low risk way for your clients to relieve themselves of the day-to-day requirements of serving as their own trustee.

While acting as trustee or ‘agent for trustee’, ING Trust may take action on behalf of the trust such as making distributions to, or on behalf of, the client or other named beneficiaries, complying with tax laws, providing tax reports, providing notice to beneficiaries and providing investment and account activity reports. The many benefits to outsourcing the administration of your client’s trust to ING Trust includes:

Professional trust administration and asset management

At ING Trust, your client’s trust will never be assigned to a call center. A Trust Officer will be assigned to their account and your client may call their Trust Officer with questions at any time. The Trust Officer, under your client’s advisement, will oversee both the administrative and investment strategy for their trust assets. The Trust Officer will monitor all asset activity in the account including, but not limited to, trades and trade settlements, receipt of interest and dividends, stock splits and maturities. The Trust Officer will also make investment recommendations to you, the financial adviser, to maximize your client’s trust returns.

Access to monthly bill paying services

With ING Trust serving as your client’s trustee, your client may have ING pay bills directly from their trust account on an ongoing, timely basis. ING Trust will even pay quarterly estimated tax payments. These payments can be verified by viewing the transaction detail on their monthly trust statement. Many clients appreciate this service, as professional obligations, travel or family health issues may interrupt their daily routines.

Ability to consolidate multiple investment accounts into one trust account

ING Trust will help you and your client to re-register their financial assets into their Revocable Living Trust. ING Trust will also collect income from securities and other investments held in the trust account and 'sweep' it daily into a money market fund to improve their investment returns. This sweep feature ensures there is no idle cash sitting for long periods uninvested in the trust account. This is a convenience as it ensures that dividend and interest checks received are invested promptly and automatically at all times.

Detailed permanent transaction records

Many clients keep poor records of their financial transactions. This makes it difficult for their tax preparer to determine their tax liability for the year. The detailed recordkeeping services provided by ING Trust enable your client’s accountant to quickly determine what transactions have transpired and which have tax consequences. It also enables your client to examine records from prior years to review patterns and trends that may be emerging in their financial affairs.

No termination fee if services are cancelled

Unlike many bank trust departments, ING Trust does not charge a fee if your client decides to change trustees after a year of service with ING Trust. In fact, ING Trust will help make a smooth transition to their designated successor trustee by electronically transferring the trust assets.

Transition at death

NG Trust can help ease the transition at your client’s eventual death for their beneficiaries. ING Trust will work with their appointed personal representative to provide information to assist with estate administration and final tax returns.

By outsourcing trust administration to ING Trust, your client ensures that the terms of their trust and applicable federal and state law will be followed to protect and manage the trust assets for their benefit and the benefit of future beneficiaries. Contact your Regional Trust Consultant today for more information.