Trust Services
Personalized trust services designed to help preserve wealth, support families, and carry your legacy forward with confidence.
Thoughtful Guidance for Every Generation
Trust Planning That Protects What Matters Most
Your legacy deserves more than a plan, it deserves a steward. At Waverly Advisors, we deliver trust and estate expertise through two powerful avenues: our affiliation with Smithfield Trust Company and our ownership of Pacific Portfolio Trust Company. Together, they unite decades of fiduciary experience from coast to coast, giving families a dedicated corporate trustee, seamless estate administration, and the kind of steady, objective guidance that carries wealth across generations.
Whether you’re naming a successor trustee, settling an estate, or transferring a lifetime of hard work to the people you love, Waverly stands ready to protect what matters most.
A Trusted Name. A Shared Purpose.
Smithfield Trust Company
There’s a reason trust is in their name. For nearly 30 years, Smithfield Trust Company has earned the confidence of individuals, families, and institutions, building relationships that span generations and a reputation rooted in doing right by clients. Through our affiliation, that legacy of fiduciary excellence now connects to Waverly’s national platform, pairing personalized trust and estate expertise with deeper investment, tax, and planning resources. It’s specialized trust service, backed by broader strength, and a shared commitment to putting clients first, every step of the way.
Independent Oversight. National Strength.
Pacific Portfolio Trust Company
When families need a trustee they can count on, they turn to Pacific Portfolio Trust Company (PPTC). A wholly owned Waverly company with more than three decades of trust and estate experience, PPTC brings the discipline, continuity, and professional oversight that complex wealth demands. From successor trustee appointments to estate settlement, beneficiary communication, and the stewardship of concentrated or complex assets, our team handles the details so families don’t have to. And with Waverly’s full investment and planning power behind every engagement, clients get the best of both worlds: a dedicated corporate trustee with the reach of a national wealth leader.
OUR INTEGRATED SERVICES
Every Part of Your Wealth
Working Together
Asset Management and Investment Oversight
Trust administration often requires investment oversight that balances growth, income, liquidity, risk management, and the long-term intent of the trust. Waverly provides disciplined asset management and investment oversight designed to align trust assets with the needs of beneficiaries, distribution requirements, tax considerations, and the trust’s stated objectives. Our team monitors portfolios over time, incorporates rebalancing and tax-aware investment strategies where appropriate, and works to help preserve wealth across generations.
Beneficiary Services and Communication
Effective trust administration depends on clear communication and consistent support for beneficiaries. Waverly helps manage beneficiary communications, distribution requests, trust reporting, and education around the purpose and terms of the trust. By serving as a professional point of contact, we help reduce confusion, promote transparency, and support a more thoughtful experience for families and beneficiaries throughout the administration process.
Tax Administration and Compliance
Trusts can involve detailed tax administration, fiduciary reporting, required filings, and coordination with outside tax professionals. Waverly supports the administration process by helping coordinate fiduciary tax reporting, K-1 preparation, recordkeeping, and communication with CPAs, estate planning attorneys, and other advisors. This collaborative approach is designed to support compliance, reduce administrative complexity, and help ensure trust responsibilities are handled with care.
Special Asset Administration
Many trusts include assets that require more specialized oversight than traditional marketable securities. Waverly helps administer complex trust assets such as closely held businesses, real estate, concentrated stock positions, private investments, and other nontraditional holdings. Our team works with the appropriate professionals to help evaluate ownership considerations, liquidity needs, valuation requirements, risk exposure, and the role these assets play within the broader trust and estate plan.
Fiduciary Accountability and Reporting
Serving as trustee carries significant fiduciary responsibility, including the need for accurate documentation, prudent decision-making, timely reporting, and clear accountability. Waverly provides professional oversight designed to support trust accounting, regulatory compliance, distribution documentation, recordkeeping, and ongoing administration. Our process helps families and beneficiaries gain confidence that trust responsibilities are being managed in a thoughtful, organized, and fiduciary-focused manner.
Estate Settlement and Legacy Continuity
Trust services can play an important role in helping families carry out a loved one’s wishes and maintain continuity during times of transition. Waverly helps support estate settlement coordination, asset transition, beneficiary communication, and the ongoing administration needed to move a legacy plan forward. By combining fiduciary oversight with personalized guidance, we help families navigate complex trust and estate responsibilities while keeping long-term wealth preservation, family goals, and legacy planning at the center.
Trust Services
Personalized by Design. Guided by Fiduciary Commitment.
Every family, trust, and legacy plan is different. Waverly takes time to understand your goals, values, family dynamics, beneficiary needs, and long-term vision before developing thoughtful trust solutions. Our trust professionals collaborate with investment managers, tax specialists, estate planning attorneys, and other advisors to support integrated execution and continuity over time.
FAQs
Trust Services Answers for What Matters Most
Find answers to common questions about Waverly Advisors’ trust services, including trust administration, fiduciary responsibilities, beneficiary communication, and estate settlement coordination.
How does Waverly work with Smithfield Trust Company and Pacific Portfolio Trust Company, and what can clients expect?
Waverly deliberately built its trust capabilities to give clients more. More expertise, more resources, and more continuity for the moments that matter most. Through our affiliation with Smithfield Trust Company and our ownership of Pacific Portfolio Trust Company, we’ve brought together decades of fiduciary experience from coast to coast, each firm chosen for its ability to protect families and honor long-term relationships.
Why do it this way? Because complex wealth deserves a dedicated trustee, not an afterthought. By uniting these respected trust companies with Waverly’s national platform, we’ve created a deeper bench of trust, investment, tax, and planning expertise, all working in concert on your behalf.
For clients, that means one connected experience: a professional corporate trustee to carry out your wishes, seamless estate and trust administration, and the full strength of Waverly’s investment and planning resources behind every engagement. Whether you’re naming a successor trustee, settling an estate, or transferring wealth across generations, you can expect steady hands, objective guidance, and a partner committed to putting you first.
What are trust services?
Trust services help individuals, families, and fiduciaries administer trusts, manage trust assets, communicate with beneficiaries, coordinate tax reporting, document distributions, and carry out the terms of a trust over time. Professional trust administration can also help provide continuity, fiduciary oversight, and support for complex family, business, charitable, or multi-generational planning needs.
Why is trust planning important for families with complex wealth?
Trust planning can help families manage the transfer, protection, and long-term stewardship of wealth across generations. For families with complex assets, business interests, charitable goals, blended family dynamics, special needs considerations, or significant beneficiary responsibilities, a trust can provide structure, continuity, privacy, and guidance for how assets should be managed and distributed over time.
What is the role of a trustee?
A trustee is responsible for administering a trust according to its terms and acting in the best interests of the beneficiaries. Trustee responsibilities may include managing trust assets, maintaining records, making distributions, communicating with beneficiaries, coordinating tax reporting, and carrying out fiduciary duties with care, loyalty, and impartiality. The specific role of a trustee depends on the trust document and applicable law.
What is the difference between a trustee, co-trustee, and successor trustee?
A trustee is the person or institution responsible for managing and administering a trust. A co-trustee serves alongside another trustee and may share fiduciary responsibilities, decision-making, or administrative duties. A successor trustee steps in when the current trustee can no longer serve, such as due to resignation, incapacity, or death. Choosing the right trustee structure can help support continuity, accountability, and proper administration.
Who should consider professional trust administration?
Professional trust administration may be helpful for individuals and families with complex assets, multi-generational wealth planning needs, business succession concerns, charitable goals, special needs considerations, or family dynamics that could make impartial fiduciary oversight especially valuable. It may also be appropriate when family members do not have the time, expertise, or desire to take on the legal, financial, and administrative responsibilities of serving as trustee.
How are Waverly Trust Services different from other trust providers?
Waverly Trust Services are designed to combine professional trust administration with personalized wealth management guidance. Rather than approaching trust administration as a standalone service, Waverly works to coordinate fiduciary oversight, investment management, beneficiary communication, tax administration support, estate settlement coordination, and collaboration with outside attorneys, CPAs, and advisors. This integrated approach helps families manage complexity while keeping long-term goals, continuity, and legacy planning at the center.
How does Waverly work with my attorney or CPA?
Waverly does not provide legal or tax advice, but our team regularly collaborates with estate planning attorneys, CPAs, and other advisors to support coordinated trust planning and administration. This collaboration can help align investment oversight, fiduciary administration, tax reporting support, estate settlement coordination, and trust implementation discussions with the broader estate plan.
Reach out to our Team
Learn more about our full range of investment management services and how we can support your financial planning needs.