Beneficiaries locked into an existing trust or planning a parent’s estate will discover:

• the basic rules governing trustees/beneficiaries' rights
• how to get a distribution of principal, increase trust income/growth, etc.
• whether your trust has grown with inflation and/or the S&P index
• strategies for dealing with bank or individual trustees
• techniques for changing a trustee or terminating a trust
• model letters requesting concessions such as a fee reduction, etc.

Benefactors will embrace the Heirs® Personal Trust Handbook because it solves myriad practical issues involved with creating a trust:

• when a personal trust is and is not worthwhile
• how different trusts vary in reducing taxes, controlling the use of your legacy and creditor protection
• custom designing a beneficiary friendly trust
• the pros/cons of bank vs. individual trustees
• directory of independent corporate (non-bank) trustees
• avoiding problems by ‘omitting’ the trustee
• specimen settlers - trustee agreement designed to ensure that the trustees act properly
• which states are more "trust/estate friendly"

Sample excerpts from the Heirs® Personal Trust Handbook may be found in the Publications section of this site.

What People Say About the Heirs® Personal Trust Handbook

"I only wish my husband, Edmund, had the benefit of the Heirs® Personal Trust Handbook before he made up his will. He would have changed his way of thinking about the banks and lawyers...and avoided litigation with...Banker's Trust.”
     - Suzanne McCormick, Concert Pianist and Estate Beneficiary

"This book is an invaluable addition to anyone's trust financial library, absolutely crammed with essential information for both the trust benefactor and beneficiary. A "must read" from cover to cover."
     - Mrs. Sidney H. Gommell, Ph.D, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania and Beneficiary

"Standish Smith has been fighting for the rights of trust beneficiaries for ten years. He brings to his subject a unique combination of passion and expertise. In this book he selflessly shares the most potent tools in his arsenal: his knowledge and his empathy. It's an indispensable personal guide for anyone who must suffer the travails of a trust situation."
     - Dan Rottenberg, Editor, Financial Journalist and Author; most recent book - The Inheritors Handbook (Bloomberg Press)

"I am well aware of the absolute powerlessness of people who have the misfortune of being beneficiaries of trusts managed by incompetent or dishonest trustees. I commend...Standish Smith for his persistence in educating beneficiaries to practical alternatives..."
     - Bedda Emous, Expert Witness on Fiduciary Matters and Former Senior Bank Trust Officer

"The Handbook provides a different perspective from that usually available to beneficiaries..."
     - Dean E. Miller, former Deputy Comptroller of the Currency and Senior Advisor for Fiduciary Activities, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

"All trust beneficiaries owe Standish Smith a great debt of gratitude for his attempts to define, protect, and expand trust beneficiaries' rights. His book belongs in every public library in the US and abroad."
     - Robert Whitman, Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law

"All too frequently the legitimate inquiries of trust beneficiaries are met by the obfuscations of trust department personnel. The millennium edition of the Heirs® Personal Trust Handbook cuts through all of that. It is a "must read" for anyone who contemplates naming an institution as trustee. Why? Because it goes beyond the propaganda, puffery, and self-serving correspondence that is so much a part of the culture of today’s trust bureaucracies. The appendices are a treasure trove of useful data for lawyers and non-lawyers alike."
     - Charles E. Rounds Jr., Professor, Suffolk University Law School and Author of Loring - A Trustee's Handbook, a standard reference text

"Your in-depth work (regarding) trustee/fiduciary/beneficiary relationship(s) continues to impress me...We need your ‘tell it like it is’ approach."
     - James C. Ganter, Beneficiary with a Bank Managed Trust

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