Fiduciary Services
When it comes to safeguarding your family wealth for generations, there are many things to take into consideration—estate planning, wealth preservation and transfer, asset protection, and tax and reporting challenges, to name a few.
​
When you engage The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank to address trust and fiduciary issues, we assume full legal responsibility for executing your trust. We also act as your trusted advisor in handling your affairs when you or your family members no longer want to manage them, are incapable of handling them, or in the event of a death. Our corporate fiduciary services provide you with the peace of mind that your estate will be managed under regulatory supervision and settled and administered with unbiased discretion. At The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank, we work to offer impartial and independent advice that keeps your directions at the center of all decision making—administering your estate as if you had done it yourself.
-
Revocable Trusts
-
Irrevocable Trusts
-
Charitable Trusts
-
Estate Settlement
-
Insurance Trusts
-
Testamentary Trusts
Trust and Estate Administration
Families create trusts for a myriad of reasons—to avoid probate, to designate how funds are spent, and to create a family legacy. The family designated trustee must uphold, invest, and distribute the property held by the trust, and is required to closely follow the directives in managing your trust and estate’s day-to-day responsibilities. One of the biggest benefits of a trust is that these regulations remain in place for heirs long after family deaths, or even when the grantor is no longer able to manage their own affairs and enlists the help of a trustee.
At The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank, our experienced staff of trust experts administer your trust and distribute your estate at your direction. Our trustees can aid your beneficiaries in making decisions necessary to maximize investments and tax benefits. As a trustee, The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank is in an ideal position as an independent third-party to serve as an unbiased decision-maker among heirs, upholding the wishes of the grantor, mitigating risk amongst beneficiaries, and ensuring a smooth transition of the estate.
Should you choose The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank as your trustee or executor, rest assured knowing that our staff will work directly with your team of trusted advisors. From attorneys to accountants, experience shows that this type of collaboration often results in reduced fees. Our trust experts integrate your customized trust and estate solutions into your overall wealth management plan.
Our Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank experts can tackle any type of trust, from living trusts to irrevocable trusts and special needs trusts. Your estate and trust administration will be completed by experienced attorneys and paralegals who possess many years of industry knowledge. We are uniquely positioned to oversee your estate and this neutrality helps us deliver on our primary goal: preserving your legacy for generations to come.
Domestic Asset Protection Trust
In 2013, Ohio became the 14th state to adopt a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT), providing individuals with the ability to protect their life savings from creditors and litigation. This DAPT, known as the Ohio Legacy Trust, is an estate planning tool created to offer comfort in a world filled with constant litigation. The DAPT in Ohio is thought to have some of the most substantial safeguards in the United States, providing more protection than Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, and Nevada.
DAPTs are commonly used by doctors, business owners, lawyers, accountants, directors of publicly traded companies, or anyone whose occupational roles put them at risk of a lawsuit. A DAPT can also be used in place of a prenuptial agreement, as long as the trustee is established in the state of Ohio.
As an Ohio corporate trustee, The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank works with your attorneys and you, the grantor, to establish a DAPT, determining what assets belong in the trust, while also developing precautions to aid in protecting assets from an aggressive litigant.
A DAPT is only as effective as its trustee. The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank has a solid foundation of experience and partnerships with some of the best estate planning attorneys in the industry to protect your assets for generations. As an Ohio-based trust company, we will walk alongside you through the process of establishing one of the most robust DAPTs available as a part of your estate plan, allowing you to preserve your legacy for generations to come.
Special Needs Trusts
Depending on the scenario, a special needs trust may be necessary to accomplish your goal of protecting a loved one. These trusts are often complex in nature, making it crucial to name a fiduciary who understands the intricacies of their inner workings.
​
The proper execution and administration of a special needs trust provides peace of mind to the grantors by empowering the fiduciary to determine the distribution of assets. This trust will also protect the beneficiary and preserve their eligibility for governmental benefits. In essence, the trust will allow the beneficiary to retain assets and still receive much-needed government assistance.
​
A qualified and knowledgeable fiduciary is vital to a special needs trust. The trustee will ensure that the terms of the trust are followed, which allows for the beneficiary's needs to be met while maintaining the eligibility for benefits. At The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank, we have years of experience dealing with special needs trusts along with a variety of other estate planning matters. We have the compassion to be an effective resource for your loved one. At the same time, we know the rules, regulations, and processes to ensure matters aren’t just done the correct way, but The Preferred Way.
Professional Trustee for Retirement Plans
In this day and age, offering a retirement plan to your employees isn’t only a benefit—it’s an expectation. Offering a retirement plan often helps with overall employee retention and satisfaction, but unfortunately can also come with risk to you and your company should litigation from a past employee or beneficiary arise. Enlisting a professional trustee who strictly adheres to the Plan objectives and directives is essential. A self-trusteed plan’s administrator assumes all risk and liability in following Plan directives, whereas a professional trustee leverages their experience to make effective changes to the Plan that benefit employees and employers alike.
At The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank, our professional trustees have experience with a variety of types of plans. We stay up-to-date on laws, ever-changing regulations, and new compliance guidance in order to partner with you to better serve your employees. Our trustees keep employers on track to reach ERISA deadlines for IRS filings, required notices for participants, and plan amendments. Should our professional trustees accept investment management responsibility, then we will also oversee the investments in the Plan to ensure that funds are performing according to their designated fund objective.
​
The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank’s professional trustees allow you the peace of mind that your plan is managed properly, giving you the ability to spend your time efficiently running your business while creating a legacy for yourself and your employees.
Self-Directed IRAs
A self-directed IRA is an Individual Retirement Account, either traditional or Roth, that allows you the freedom to choose your own investments. Often times, these accounts are invested in alternative assets including real estate, a privately held company, mortgages, or LLCs. This type of investment allows you the ability to gain more diversification within your portfolio.
​
A self-directed IRA offers you the ability to build wealth for your retirement using the tax advantages of IRAs and the accessibility of a wide range of investment choices. Usually, IRA investments are limited to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and certificates of deposit (CDs), that a
firm or bank offers their clients. Instead of relying on a separate entity to manage your portfolio, you can use your knowledge and expertise to invest in opportunities with a consistent and steady cash flow—such as rental real estate or secured loans. This gives you, as a self-directed
investor, the power to put money in an investment that makes the most sense for, well, you.
​
As the name indicates, a self-directed IRA is controlled entirely by the IRA owner, meaning you, as the owner, take on all tax liability. As an investor, you must diligently monitor investment opportunities to avoid a taxable event. In addition, this type of account also comes with a number of IRS rules and regulations—including prohibited transactions, indirect benefits, disqualified persons, and fair market valuations.
​
At The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank, we use our specialized experience and extensive knowledge to serve as custodian of our clients’ assets by guiding the management of their investments. We work alongside your accountants and attorneys to make the process
of setting up self-directed IRAs as effortless as possible and help you personalize investments to your needs and retirement goals. Our team offers a wealth of expertise to assist you during each step of the process, from purchasing assets to daily administration. Reach out to The Preferred Legacy National Trust Bank today for help navigating your self-directed IRA options.