Advisors Institutional - Brokers/Dealers

Why Should a Broker/Dealer Set Up a Trust Company?

For the broker dealer it is advisable that you offer your brokers and your wealth managers alike the ability to keep their business in-house and on the same team. Thus owning your own trust company can be an essential part of your total financial strategy. Here are some of the benefits:

Greater control. Keep control of accounts in the same firm. Don't risk losing them to a third party trust company.
Profit center. Earn substantial profits through charging trustee fees and other fees from providing your clients important and timely trust services.
Attract new accounts. With the addition of your own in-house trust company you will attract new wealthy clients whom you can now help to lower taxes on securities transactions, preserve assets from lawsuits and other threats, and maintain control of their assets so an orderly transfer can be made to the next generation.

What some broker/dealers say about owning their own trust companies:

"When we established Raymond James' Trust Company 15 years ago it was the smartest single investment and strategy our firm had ever made."
- Raymond James Company, Member NYSE

"For any brokerage firm that doesn't have its own trust company it's going to be increasingly more difficult to meet the needs of investors in the next 15 years. It is for this reason that we set up a private trust company in 2003."
- LPL Financial, Independent Broker Dealer

"It would be foolish to think that we could compete with our peers such as American Express, CitiBank and Wachovia for affluent clients without owning and operating our own trust company."
- Merrill Lynch and Co., New York