Estate Administration


 Products & Services

 Estate Administration

Our estate administration professionals will work with you and your family to understand your needs and be sure your wishes are followed to the letter.   Soaring taxes and the complexity of today’s typical estate have made the task of the executor a real burden on a widow, a relative, a business associate or anyone without the skill and experience necessary to properly administer the financial affairs of a decedent. Our estate administration services include:


Executor

It was once common to think of executorship as merely an “honorary” office, without any real duties or responsibilities. However, in an estate of even modest proportions, the executor or “personal representative” must:
  • Locate, inventory and safeguard all estate assets; establish values for tax and accounting purposes.
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  • Provide continuing management for income-producing real estate and business interests.
  • Pay funeral expenses, legitimate claims of creditors, and expenses of administering the estate.
  • Collect all debts owed to the decedent and be prepared to defend the estate against invalid or improper claims.
  • Assume responsibility for all estate, inheritance, income or gift tax returns required by state or federal authorities.
  • Keep detailed records of all income, expenses and estate transactions.  Render accounting to the court or to beneficiaries.
  • Distribute the estate in accordance with the provisions of the decedent’s will. 
Accountant, bill collector, investment adviser, tax expert—these are only some of the skills required of a modern executor—skills possessed to a high degree by today’s trust institution.  Here we maintain a team of specialists whose sole objective is the prompt, efficient and economical administration of estates.
When we are named in a will as executor, a capable and experienced trust administrative officer assumes personal charge of the estate.  A vital link with the decedent’s family, this trust officer is always available to answer inquiries or to discuss the progress of estate administration with the beneficiaries.  He or she combines a sympathetic understanding of the problems of people with a technical competence that few individual executors can claim to possess. 

Agent for Investors
In all the services thus far described, we act under the terms of a will or trust agreement planned in consultation with your attorney.  But we offer added services to investors and property owners—services in which we act as agent rather than as trustee.  Formalities are at a minimum, and the arrangement may be terminated at any time.

 

  • Our Investment Management Service, for example, provides full, personalized portfolio supervision.It begins with the signing of a simple agreement and the acceptance of securities (or funds available for investment) into an account.


After a frank and confidential discussion of the customer’s investment objectives, our investment officers perform a complete portfolio analysis and determine what steps are required to conform to the customer’s specific goals and risk tolerance.

Thereafter, we provide continuing management, acting whenever we believe action is needed.  Investment Management customers receive comprehensive reports and are encouraged to meet with us to discuss the progress of their accounts as well as any changes in their goals and requirements.

  • Our Investment Advisory Service is designed specifically for today’s busy, part-time investors.  It is similar to our Investment Management Service.  We give advice and guidance to customers, but the customer approves all investment changes in advance.

 

  • Our Custody Service is specially designed to take the pain out of paperwork.  Here, we do not offer investment advice or recommendations.  But just as in any other trust or agency relationship, we perform all the time-consuming administrative chores involved in owning securities.

  

Feel free to contact one of our Trust Officers at 810-966-8710.