We are in the process of putting together our estate plan and contemplating a revocable trust and nominating a corporate trustee as successor. My primary goal is ensuring my spouse doesn't have to deal with the investing, taxes, etc. down the road.
We've looked at the local bank's trust department. Minimum 1% fee, plus additional for real estate, plus additional for them to manage your investments in what I'm sure would be an expensive advisory program.
Our other options are an independent trustee or a big investment company like Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity.
I see that VG and Schwab get pretty good reviews on here for their trust department (with the exception of VG not dealing with real estate). But when I read up on Schwab, it looks like you have to let them manage the investments. I think it's the same for Fidelity.
We are in VG ETFs at Fidelity currently.
1. if we nominated Schwab or Fidelity as trustee, would they try to push you into their higher fee products? I'd assume they can't create a taxable event to do this in a brokerage account?
2. is VG still the cheapest option between their lower trust fees and lower PAS fees?
3. I understand you have to provide the trust documents to the trustee to approve, but what happens if years down the road it's time for the trustee to step up and they are either closed, or no longer want to manage your trust?
4. VG's normal customer service is pretty abysmal. If they are your trustee, are you going to run into issues of long hold times, being unable to reach your assigned rep, etc.?
We've looked at the local bank's trust department. Minimum 1% fee, plus additional for real estate, plus additional for them to manage your investments in what I'm sure would be an expensive advisory program.
Our other options are an independent trustee or a big investment company like Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity.
I see that VG and Schwab get pretty good reviews on here for their trust department (with the exception of VG not dealing with real estate). But when I read up on Schwab, it looks like you have to let them manage the investments. I think it's the same for Fidelity.
We are in VG ETFs at Fidelity currently.
1. if we nominated Schwab or Fidelity as trustee, would they try to push you into their higher fee products? I'd assume they can't create a taxable event to do this in a brokerage account?
2. is VG still the cheapest option between their lower trust fees and lower PAS fees?
3. I understand you have to provide the trust documents to the trustee to approve, but what happens if years down the road it's time for the trustee to step up and they are either closed, or no longer want to manage your trust?
4. VG's normal customer service is pretty abysmal. If they are your trustee, are you going to run into issues of long hold times, being unable to reach your assigned rep, etc.?
Statistics: Posted by MtnTravel — Fri Aug 30, 2024 9:25 am — Replies 0 — Views 71