Is anyone here a Trustee of a Trust for another, or was, or will be?

Just wanting a discussion of actual duties and issues if anyone has anything to talk about.

I have served as Trustee on Land Trust.

Trustees are the face of the property to the general public. I want them out of state from where the property is at. I want the trust to be in one state, the trustee in a second and the property in a third. So if you want to sue me, you still can. Just start serving notices.

An excellent clause to have excuses the Trustee of all duties at any time the Beneficiary wants them relived. So in my Trust, if for example my Trustee gets a certified letter from an attorney, they are relived and told to provide an email address for the replacement Trustee.

How do you provide legal service to an email address? After what state law applies to email?

I am not saying you can't get sued, EVERYONE can. Just that at some point, that ambulance chaser might tell his client not to slip and fall on your property but instead on your neighbor's property.

It is customary to pay the Trustee about $100 a year and reimburse them for the cost of any mail that they forward on to you.

As for beneficiaries, I love putting my LLCs into that role. The Trustee does what the beneficiary tells them to do - like signing a deed during the sale of a property. Trustees work for the beneficiary, just as place holders in the title of the property. Carefully consider that statement. You own nothing but you control everything.

Our estate attorney suggested we hire a professional Trustee to run one of our Children's Trusts when we go.

The Trustee the attorney is recommending would charge 1% of the assets. Which doesn't sound like much until you realize that with RE, just assessing value of the assets will require regular appraisals ($1000 a property on average) and I'm sure other such services over time. It's not like examining a statement from an IRA. And what other services can pop up like that? (As many as they can think of, I'm sure...) Like a property manager, differing priorities.

I just completed my service as a Trustee. WHM - You would be wise to completely understand the broad powers a Trustee has, especially the buying and selling of assets. Please note - I did not work for the beneficiaries. My job, as instructed by the Estate Attorney was to manage the trust assets and distribute the asset as directed by the Trust after the Trustor's death.

In fact during my service I had three sessions with the Estate Attorney to ensure I acted in fair,ethical and legal manner.

The Trustee fee is not the issue. The KEY is the Trustworthiness of the Trustee.

Again I am not sure about a - professional Trustee - but who ever you select it should be someone that you completely TRUST. Good luck

Hi W!

Wifey was the Trustee for her mother's (trust) estate at her passing. Her sister was Co-Trustee so they worked together.

Basically the trust documents spelled out paying the bills, selling the property, cars, material goods.

1% seems high for your estate.

Our will names an atty as trustee, paid hourly, if both of us are gone, to provide basic financial support for our minor children - food, shelter, clothing, education including college, and a modest car. They get no large inheritance until age 35.

The youngest in now 40.

I am trustee on some of our real estate. The docs plainly lay out a list of tasks the trustee has permission to perform - Sign for the trust, make offers, buy, sell, rent, represent in court, etc.

Make a checklist of what you want done and be SUPER CLEAR and SPECIFIC, tighten up the wording to avoid misinterpretation and gaps.

I bought a course on this at a MrLL Convention.

BRAD

November 4, 2025

Asset Protection Strategies for Landlords

By: Jeffery S. Watson

Dear Ray,

For landlords serious about keeping their properties, I recommend they engage in a 4-point asset protection strategy:

Hold title to the property in a grantor revocable title holding trust utilizing a professional trustee service.

Have that title holding trust be owned by a limited liability company.

Make sure the property has substantial property and casualty insurance, including an umbrella liability policy.

Keep the property in good condition so it attracts and retains good, quality tenants.

Let’s talk about the first two strategies in this email. I’m an advocate of properties being held in a grantor revocable title holding trust. I know that sounds like a mouthful, but let’s break it down.

“Grantor” means the trust is controlled by the person who created it. “Revocable” means the grantor can amend, alter or revoke the trust. “Title holding” means the purpose of the trust is to hold title to a piece of real estate. “Trust” means there is a trustee (person or entity) listed on the deed and on public record as the owner of the property. The trustee, whether a company or person, must be ready, willing and able to be found when needed on behalf of the trust. They aren’t hiding and want to properly convey all notices to the grantor and beneficiaries of the trust.

An advantage of holding title to property in a trust is that if anything happens at that property, it is limited to just that property, and the problem does not spread to any other properties owned by the same investor(s).

Another advantage of using a trust is that it gives a great deal of anonymity and privacy so that the true beneficial owners of the property, the ones who are receiving the net operating income (cash flow) and are benefitting from the amortization and appreciation, are not discoverable on public record. Anonymity and privacy are precious things and can go a long way in protecting and preserving assets.

While the trust provides anonymity and privacy, the trust by itself provides little to no real asset protection characteristics. A trust does not have the statutory protections that a limited liability company has. The sole purpose of using an LLC is to do just what its name says – limit liability to just that one asset and keep the rest of the grantor/beneficiary assets separate from any potential threats to that asset.

More advanced clients will use a combination of a grantor revocable title holding trust which is owned by a single-member LLC, and then that single-member LLC is owned by a multiple-member, long-term LLC taxed as a partnership. Both the trust and the single-member LLC are disregarded entities for tax purposes in the eyes of the IRS; but for banking purposes, both of those entities need to have taxpayer ID numbers and bank accounts. Having these things doesn’t mean the trust or the single-member LLC are filing tax returns. Ultimately, all the income is reported and accounted for on the tax return of the master multiple-member LLC that may ultimately control a dozen or so properties.

My thoughts on this subject have been written from the perspective of being a long-term, buy-and-hold, landlord investor for over 30 years. I also have substantial experience as an attorney trying cases in the courtroom, and I understand how insurance companies, juries, and, most importantly, trial lawyers, think.

In my next email, I will explain that thinking when I talk about the importance of having the correct types of insurance coverages and the necessity of properly managing and maintaining your rental properties.

Your comments and brief questions are appreciated. I read every one and will do my best to briefly respond. If you like this article, please feel free to share it on social media or otherwise and encourage your friends to go to WatsonInvested.com to sign up so they can receive their own emails.

Until next time,

For clarification: a land trust is 180 degrees different than an estate trustee. In a land trust, the trustee works absolutely for the beneficiary. The trustee has no power and only does what the beneficiary says. In a life or estate trust, the initial beneficiary has passed. So the trustee has all the power.

Augie Bylott of Commonwealth Trust Services in Florida would be an excellent resource for you.

We have a Family Trust, of which we are the Trustees, which when we die will be handled by our successor Trustee, a son. His directions, working with our attorney, will be to distribute the now-created Descendant's Trusts to the beneficiaries: his two brothers and himself. They all get different houses. Well they get different LLCs which own the houses.

That part is done even if I haven't spelled it all out here. It's been done for years.

The second part: the Descendant's Trusts. DS#1 and DS#3 are their own Trustees and can do what they like. It's Middle Son who is the well-loved but financially clueless son that needs a separate Trustee or he will sell it all and go buy an RV to travel the desert in a loincloth...not really but you get what I am saying.

Both people who would have served as Trustee have lost their health - both quickly and recently - and we need a replacement Trustee.

I bought the course two conventions back.

I also spoke with the author, Randy, when we were in Florida at the boot camp.

I should have gotten right on it while it still made sense.

Unfortunately I did not and reading the material was like a different language to me.

Ken, my son does works hard for the money and earns a really good living...it's keeping the money he earns that is the problem. Like a fish growing to the size of the tank, the more he earns the more they consume.

His biggest issue is those dam Jones'. He is best friends since high school with at three genuine multi-millionaires - good kids who all made good. Homes in the Hamptons and what not. Keeping up is impossible but he sometimes he tries and it just kills his finances.

My $2000/hour estate advisor wrote in our will to divide the TOTAL VALUE of our estate by our 3 heirs, not individual properties - because physical things change, get sold/bought, one goes up, the other goes down in value, their lives change, their families change, etc.

The son who wanted the cabin in the woods now has 3 kids and needs to be near schools.

He said to let the heirs decide what to do with the asset value, what they want/need when the time comes.

When my last parent passed the RE market was very different than when they wrote their will and where it is now.

Right now my kids are having fun arguing who gets my Porsche 911. But someday that will be a real issue. Or it might be gone. (replaced by something just as cool!)

Our will is written that all items are to be appraised and the value divided equally, but whatever they take comes off their share. Basically they buy it from the estate using their inheritance.

This worked very well with my siblings.

BRAD

PS

Our world needs free spirits to write the poetry and music, and paint the paintings.

You reminded me of a movie THE JONESES - actors hired to play a fake family, move into suburbia, and promote products to entice the neighbors to spend.

"My new lawn mower is great! You need one!"

"I got a great deal on this watch. I can get you the same deal."

Interesting how easy it was to get people to spend.

For another perspective on trustees and their duties, read Nevil Shute’s novel Trustee from the Toolroom (1960). From the late John Walker’s review:

“And he was the trustee.” Keith Stewart, who had never set foot

outside of England, and can barely afford a modest holiday, suddenly

finds himself faced with figuring out how to travel to the other side

of the world, to a location that isn't even on his map, and undertake

Brad, we have never bought into the "Sell everything!" AND THEN FIGURE OUT THE MONEY. I've seen families fall apart over one house...

Looks like I will be leaving them nothing.

We help them out more now and can enjoy it with them.

Hopefully by the time of our demise the kids will be well set up on their own.

I want the properties to be set up in trusts so it is easier for them to sell them off or give them away or whatever. Only because that is what we will have.

Tim if you are talking to me you missed key points. Three LLCs three kids each gets their own and does what they will end of story.

One kid is already a PM of his own properties, one kid is working with us regularly to learn his biz but another one is not great at this stuff.

IN our family it worked out very well. The court requires professional appraisal of all assets at DOD Date of Death.

The total value is divided by 3.

Each heir can take a house or cash as part of their inheritance, based on the value at DOD.

One sibling wanted a certain house plus some cash to add up to their share, moved into the house.

Another had moved out of state and just wanted cash as real estate would have been hard to manage.

I took my share in real estate because I am local and can handle it easily.

Another took a house and some cash, fixed up the house and sold it.

All this was at the new stepped up basis.

Not sure but an LLC did not die so the basis might not be stepped up, creating a huge tax liability for the heir when they sell it.

Our biggest reason - physical things, situations, and people change between now and when we die. Our children, their spouses, and their children can die before we do.

What looks right today might not be correct when the time comes.

BRAD