Interview
Questions to ask a trust company
These are sentences to send before anyone signs an acceptance — not a ranking and not a script for a sales call. If a firm cannot answer in writing, that is the finding.
Editorial only. Not legal, tax, or investment advice. Statutes and licensee lists change — read the primary source and the date on each citation.
Send these as a short letter or email. Keep the family’s names off the first pass if you want a process answer rather than a pitch.
Entity and charter
- What is the exact legal name that will sign the trustee acceptance, and on which state roster does that name appear?
- Is that entity a public, retail, limited-purpose, or private/family charter? Please cite the credential or license number if the state issues one.
- Will any affiliate — RIA, family office, tax shop, or sister trust company — touch the file? If yes, under what agreement?
- Who is the examiner or regulator of record for this entity, and when was the last published roster date you rely on?
Role
- Will you take a directed / administrative seat only, a full discretionary seat, a co-trustee seat, or an agency-trustee seat?
- If directed, which duties will you exclude (investment, distribution, tax, special assets), and which statute section do you want the instrument to recite?
- If our investment adviser is not your affiliate, will you accept that adviser as directing adviser on the same terms as an in-house adviser?
- Who may remove and replace the trustee, and do you require your own form of resignation / successor language?
Situs and administration
- Where will day-to-day administration occur (city and state), and which people there have authority to open accounts and move cash?
- What do you require, in fact, to support the governing-law and situs recitals we intend to use?
- Will originals or readily examinable copies of material records sit in the charter state?
Custody, assets, and operations
- Where are cash and marketable securities held — on your balance sheet, at a named third-party custodian, or both? Who is on the account registration?
- What unique or closely held assets will you administer (operating companies, real estate, concentrated public stock, digital assets, life insurance)? What will you refuse?
- Who can initiate a distribution or a wire, and how many approvals does it take?
- Do you provide investment management for trust assets? If yes, under which entity and fee schedule?
Fees and documents (ask; do not invent)
- Please send the current fee schedule or a written quote for this appointment. We will not rely on a marketing page.
- Which fees are paid by the trust vs. billed to the family office or the adviser?
- Please send your standard directed-trustee acceptance, conflicts disclosure, and any affiliate-referral disclosure that will apply.
Continuity
- What happens to this appointment if you merge, sell, surrender the charter, or enter a receivership or conservatorship?
- Who is the successor trustee if we do not name one, and where would records go?
If you want the same questions as checkboxes, use the due-diligence checklist. If answers come back fuzzy, read red flags.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need answers to every question before a first call?
No. Send the entity, role, situs, and custody questions first. Unique-asset and fee questions usually need a draft instrument or a fact pattern. Unknown after a written ask is a flag; unknown before you have asked is just unfinished work.
Should I ask for AUM?
Only if you will use a dated, named figure. This directory omits unsourced AUM. A marketing “client capital” number that mixes group subsidiaries is not a regulatory filing. Prefer custody location and unique-asset appetite over a headline AUM.
Can I reuse these questions for a bank trust department?
The entity and regulator questions change. A national bank with trust powers is not the same charter as a state trust company. Ask which legal entity and which regulator supervise the trust powers.
What if the firm says directed appointments are “standard”?
Ask them to attach the directed vs discretionary form of acceptance they actually use, and to name the statute section they rely on. “Standard” is not SDCL 55-1B, NRS 163.5548, W.S. 4-10-718, or 12 Del. C. § 3313.