In “Private Trust Companies Are ‘En-Vogue’ But Not Appropriate For All Wealthy Families,” Eliane Chavagnon of the Family Wealth Report interviews Scott Baker and Todd D. Mayo. Mr. Baker is president of Perspecta Trust LLC, which is a founding member of the Trust Council. Mr. Mayo is a principal of Perspecta Trust. In the interview, Messrs. Baker and May discuss the advantages and alternatives to family trust companies.
Baker said private trust companies – essentially family-owned enterprises combining attributes of institutional and individual trustees – are best suited to families with large, privately-held businesses or in cases where a family might have a few dozen individual trusts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, for example.
Private trust companies offer families a way to develop strong governance practices by facilitating the centralization of management and administration of all activities carried out within the entity. But Baker said his firm is seeing them prescribed to families in cases where the same flexibility and control could be put in place without the associated costs and complexities by setting up new trusts or moving existing trusts to a jurisdiction like New Hampshire.