Trust maintenance is the lifetime process of keeping living trust estate plans up to date.  It fosters a relationship-driven practice model built with long term client associations.  The law firm typically supports client trust plans with vital services and routine updating to ensure that clients' plans work as intended.  When a trust is designed and created, it reflects existing client conditions and known circumstances in the law and tax code.  Over time, inevitable changes in the law, tax code, the client's family, and financial circumstances affect how current the trust plan remains.  Historically, very few clients updated their trust plans regularly to prevent these types of changes from eroding the effectiveness of the planning.  Without routine updating, estate plans often fail to achieve the very goals the trust documents were crafted to accomplish.  Estate planning attorneys today are establishing maintenance and update programs to resolve these evident shortcomings in the planning process. 

 

An effective trust maintenance program offers periodic updates to trust documents to keep them current with the law and modern in their design techniques.  Initial trust funding support – the legal and administrative process of transferring assets to the trust's control – is often included.  Trust funding reviews and ongoing funding support ensure that funded trusts remain so, even as clients acquire new assets and dispose of older ones.  Educational training and support for non-professional trustees can be provided to make sure that client "helpers" are informed and prepared for their roles.  These professional offerings provide the full service law firm with steady revenue and long-term client associations.  When clients pass away, trust settlement and successor planning typically accrues to the firm.  Trust maintenance programs attract and retain new clients.  They also create opportunities to partner with likeminded financial and tax advisors in the marketplace, achieving superior planning outcomes for clients.