Not FDIC insured | Not Bank guaranteed | May lose value | Not a bank deposit | Not insured by any federal government agency.
A trust? Fiduciary? That’s fuh-doo-shee-eh-ree.
The language and concept behind trust and investment services or wealth management can be confusing. Use these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) as a tool to help you make informed decisions or to simply learn more about what we can offer.
Our Trust & Investment Services department of our Wealth Management division offers services for individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations, including but not limited to:
A fiduciary is a person (or organization) that act on behalf of others and are required to put your interests ahead of their own with a duty to preserve good faith and trust; therefore, a fiduciary is legally and ethically bound to act in your best interest.
Working with a fiduciary, such as Fidelity Bank & Trust Wealth Management, means you can be assured a financial professional will always put your interests first. Our highly experienced, knowledgeable team will provide you with peace of mind by not having to worry about conflicts of interest, misplaced incentives, or aggressive sales tactics.
A trust is a legal agreement between you, as grantor, and a trustee, who can be a person or a corporation such as Covenant Trust. Under this agreement, the trustee agrees to manage the assets you place in the trust during your life and to distribute the assets at your death. Both activities are governed by your explicit instructions as stated in the trust agreement.
With a trust, you can draw on our broad investment capabilities and have us perform any number of special services, now or in the future. These personalized services could range from making payments of estimated taxes to providing full personal financial management in the event you are unable to take care of your financial affairs.
Also, you can name one or more beneficiaries to receive the assets of your trust at your death. These distributions avoid probate. Or, you can have your trust continue beyond your lifetime, serving as a source of continuing income and support for your spouse, children or others whom you designate.
A trust can potentially accomplish a wide variety of objectives:
The primary difference is that the terms can be changed at any time in a revocable trust but not in an irrevocable one. With a revocable trust, grantors generally retain control over all the assets until they become incapacitated or pass away. Usually, grantors choose to be the trustees of their own revocable trusts. Revocable trusts avoid probate for all assets titled in the name of the trust, but any assets that are not titled in the trust’s name will go through probate (unless joint, POD, or TOD). This is why it is important to make sure that grantors have titled their assets into the trust during their lifetime.
With an irrevocable trust, once it is created and executed, it is not revocable, even by the grantor. It’s important to note also that a revocable trust becomes irrevocable once the grantor dies. People often create trusts that fund upon their death called testamentary trusts, which are also always irrevocable.
You’re not required to create a trust. If you prefer, you can put us to work on a less formal basis. All it takes is written instructions in the form of our investment agency agreement.
Most of our clients look to us for objective portfolio supervision because they lack the time or specialized knowledge to do all the necessary research and analysis required. You can delegate as much or as little investment responsibility as you want. For example, we can assist you in determining your investment goals and parameters and then the ongoing maintenance of the portfolio is left to us to manage within those parameters.
