Professional Trustee Services & Trust Administration
When a trust is central to your family’s wealth and legacy, the way it’s administered can have a lasting impact on taxes, investment results, family harmony and how well your wishes are carried out over time. A professional trustee can help ensure your trust is managed consistently and objectively, so beneficiaries are supported and your plan stays on track across generations.
Why Use a Professional Trustee?
A professional trustee manages a trust on behalf of its beneficiaries, overseeing assets, making distributions, filing tax returns and maintaining fiduciary standards. Creative Planning Trust Company, a Nevada-domiciled trust company, provides ongoing trustee services and trust administration, while Creative Planning Legal designs and drafts the underlying trust documents. Together, they connect estate planning, wealth management and asset protection into one comprehensive strategy.
Naming a loved one as trustee is common, but the role carries substantial duties that can quickly become burdensome. A professional trustee relieves family members of those responsibilities and can provide:
- Continuity — A trust company doesn’t retire, relocate or pass away, so administration can continue smoothly across generations.
- Impartiality — Decisions follow the trust’s terms, not personal relationships, which can help reduce stress and potential family conflict.
- Regulatory compliance — In-house legal, tax and investment resources help keep your trust aligned with evolving fiduciary standards and reporting requirements.
Trust administration services are part of Creative Planning’s broader family office services, so your trustee can coordinate with the teams handling your investment management, tax planning and estate planning.
The Advantage of a Nevada‑Domiciled Trust Company
Creative Planning Trust Company’s Nevada domicile gives clients access to some of the most favorable trust laws in the country, which can enhance both tax efficiency and long-term flexibility:
- No state income tax on trust-retained income and capital gains
- Ability to administer dynasty trusts lasting up to 365 years
- Access to domestic asset protection trusts (DAPTs)
- Flexibility to modify existing irrevocable trusts without court involvement
Comprehensive Wealth Management Trust Services
A trust is one piece of a broader ecosystem that includes your investment portfolio, tax strategy and estate plan. Creative Planning manages and administers trusts over time, coordinating each element to keep your goals aligned.
If you already work with an investment advisor, you may not need to change that relationship. Through directed trust structures, Creative Planning Trust Company handles administration and fiduciary oversight while your advisor manages the portfolio to support your legacy planning without disruption.
Strategic Trustee Consulting for Families and Fiduciaries
Fiduciary Reviews and Governance Support
Our team reviews existing trusts and identifies opportunities to migrate or decant to Nevada where appropriate. We also help clarify distribution philosophies, facilitate family meetings and prepare future generations for their roles through our family governance solutions.
Assisting Individual and Family Co-Trustees
Creative Planning Trust Company can serve as co-trustee alongside a family member, sharing the administrative workload. For successor trustees who feel overwhelmed, we help manage assets, coordinate tax reporting and make sure obligations to beneficiaries are met.
Advisors Specializing in Complex Trust Investment Management
Some trusts hold assets traditional banks won’t touch, including private equity, real estate or closely held businesses. With more than $700 billion in combined assets under management and advisement, including our affiliates, and approximately $8 billion in trust assets under administration, our advisors bring institutional scale, independent flexibility and cultivated custodian relationships to find cost-effective solutions focused on each client’s needs.
Management of Illiquid and Alternative Assets
Our trust company supports the valuation, sale, merger, acquisition and/or ongoing management of specialty assets and operating businesses held in trust, coordinating with in-house business services and tax professionals.
Directed Trusts and Multi-Generational Legacy Planning
In a directed trust, an investment advisor or family office team manages investments while the corporate trustee handles administration and fiduciary oversight. These structures support dynasty trust planning, wealth transfer strategies and long-term investment management for future generations.
Our Expertise in Diverse Trust Vehicles
Creative Planning works with revocable and irrevocable trusts, charitable remainder trusts (CRTs), special needs trusts and dynasty trusts. Our attorneys design and draft the documents; the trust company handles administration and fiduciary oversight.
Frequently Asked Questions about Professional Trust Services
Integrate Fiduciary Oversight into Your Wealth Strategy
Schedule a consultation to learn how Creative Planning Trust Company can support your family’s goals.
Resources for Navigating Your Trustee and Fiduciary Options
How Dynasty Trusts Help Preserve Wealth
Learn how a dynasty trust can help support multigenerational wealth preservation.
Whom Should I Choose as my Trustee?
Whom should you choose as your trustee? We'll provide you with context, FAQs and a framework of questions to ask when making the decision.
What Am I Really Asking My Trustee to Do? Understanding Trustee Duties
Learn what duties you're placing on a trustee — from investing prudently to filing taxes — and why a corporate trustee may be the right choice for your estate plan.
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