TRUSTEE SUPPORT SERVICES
Investment and Fiduciary Support for Individual Trustees
Being named trustee makes you responsible for investing trust assets, deciding when and how much to distribute, and accounting for both to beneficiaries. Riverwater Partners provides the investment management, analysis, and reporting to help individual trustees carry out that responsibility with confidence.
SUPPORT FOR THE ROLE AHEAD
You remain the trustee. We help you navigate the work.
Whether you are serving for the first time or have carried the role for years, we work alongside you: managing the trust’s portfolio, planning cash flow around scheduled and discretionary distributions, and providing the accounting and analysis that document your decisions for the people you answer to.
Brian Gigl, CFP®, Riverwater’s Director of Wealth Management, has worked with trustees for more than 20 years.
HOW WE SUPPORT TRUSTEES
We support the investment, distribution, reporting, and communication responsibilities that come with serving as an individual trustee. Legal questions about the trust document or your duties remain with the trust’s attorney.
Trust Oversight & Fiduciary Support
- Trust Review — The trust document read against the current portfolio, your fiduciary duties, and the grantor’s intent.
- Grantor Intent & Legacy Planning — Help creating family purpose statements and ethical wills that carry the grantor’s values forward.
- Accounting & Reporting — Documented accounting of trust activity, holdings, and distributions you can show beneficiaries.
Distribution Management
- Distribution Processing — Distributions administered per the trust document and the beneficiary’s circumstances, request through transfer.
- Cash Flow Planning — Liquidity planned around distribution obligations and expenses, so cash is there when due.
- Discretionary Distribution Support — Financial analysis that substantiates the judgment calls the trust leaves to your discretion.
Trust Portfolio Management
- Professional Investment Management — Diversified portfolios managed around the trust’s objectives and in accordance with the Prudent Investor Rule.
- Tax-Efficient Investing — Gain and loss harvesting and beneficiary tax brackets, coordinated with the trust’s tax preparer.
Beneficiary Communication & Education
- Beneficiary Support — Principal and income distribution questions answered for beneficiaries as well as trustees.
- Family Wealth & Financial Education — Governance, financial literacy, and stewardship guidance for the beneficiaries.
A PRACTICAL PARTNERSHIP
01
Review the trust, portfolio and responsibilities.
02
Manage investments, liquidity and distributions.
03
Document decisions and report to beneficiaries.
MEET YOUR TRUSTEE SERVICES TEAM
WHY RIVERWATER
20+ Years
Experience helping individual trustees navigate the role.
Fiduciary
We act in the best interests of our advisory clients.
Independent &
Employee-Owned
Objective advice and a long-term perspective.
Certified B Corporation™
Business standards grounded in accountability and impact.
FOR ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEYS
Investment support for the trustees you name.
When you name a client as successor trustee, they often leave your office holding a role they have never held before. Riverwater works with individual trustees on the investment side of that role—managing the trust’s portfolio, planning distributions, and documenting the reasoning—while the legal questions stay with you. We also host Cannon Financial estate planning CE luncheons in Milwaukee.
QUESTIONS WE OFTEN HEAR
Common questions from trustees.
How does Riverwater help newly appointed trustees?
We start by reading the trust document alongside the current portfolio, so you can see what the trust requires and how the investments are currently invested. From there we help by managing the trust’s portfolio, plan the cash flow to fund distributions, and provide the accounting and analysis that document your decisions. Legal questions concerning your fiduciary responsibilities under the trust agreement or local statutes are best addressed by the trust’s attorney, with whom we can work alongside.
What is the Prudent Investor Rule, and does it apply to me as an individual trustee?
The Prudent Investor Rule is the standard most states apply to how a trustee invests trust assets. It generally looks at the portfolio as a whole and at the trust’s purposes, rather than judging any single investment in isolation, and it applies to individual trustees the same way it applies to professional ones. How it applies to your trust is a question for the trust’s attorney. Riverwater manages trust portfolios in accordance with it.
Do I have to hire an investment manager, or can I manage the trust’s investments myself?
Nothing requires a trustee to hire an investment manager. Many trustees delegate the work because the trust’s standard of care applies to how the assets are invested. Whether delegation is permitted for your trust, and what it requires of you, depends on the trust document and state law—your attorney can tell you.
Does Riverwater serve as trustee?
No. Riverwater Partners is a registered investment adviser, not a trust company. We do not serve as trustee, and we do not draft or interpret trust documents. You remain the trustee and the decision-maker; we provide the investment management, analysis, and reporting behind those decisions. Drawing on our extensive background with diverse trust structures, we empower trustees with comprehensive guidance and dedicated expertise.
How do you help me decide on a discretionary distribution?
We deliver the financial analysis that substantiates your judgment calls while managing liquidity so capital is ready when distributions are required.
What am I required to tell beneficiaries, and how often?
Reporting requirements come from the trust document and your state’s laws, so your attorney is the right source for what you owe and when. What we provide is quarterly documented accounting of the trust’s activity, holdings, and distributions, in a form you can share with beneficiaries.
Is the accounting you provide a formal trust accounting?
No. We provide documented reporting of the trust’s holdings, activity, and distributions, which trustees use in their own reporting to beneficiaries. A formal or judicial accounting, where one is required, is prepared by the trust’s attorney or accountant.
What happens when co-trustees disagree?
Disagreements between co-trustees are generally resolved by the trust document and, if necessary, by counsel—not by us. Where we can help is on the facts: putting the same analysis in front of every co-trustee at the same time, so the disagreement is about judgment rather than about numbers.
Can you work alongside the trust’s existing attorney and accountant?
Yes. We coordinate with the trust’s attorney on questions about the document and the trustee’s duties, and with its accountant or tax preparer on the tax consequences of distributions and portfolio decisions. Those relationships stay in place.
Can trust assets be invested using a responsible investment framework?
Riverwater integrates responsible investing into how it manages portfolio assets, including trust portfolios, and documents the research behind each holding. Whether a particular trust permits or requires that approach is determined by the trust document and state law, so it’s worth confirming with the trust’s attorney before we set investment objectives.
Serving as a trustee? Let’s start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes with Brian Gigl, CFP®—no obligation, just a chance to talk through the trust in front of you and what the role asks of you.