Master and CommanderMaster and Commander

John P.C. Duncan, principal, Duncan Associates, LLC, Chicago.

Just 20 years ago, a sophisticated family plan might have employed a single trust, subdivided into two or perhaps three sub-trusts. A sole individual or bank served as the family's trustee. Today, popular planning strategies involve multiple trusts, numerous trustees and other advisors, fragmented trustee roles and investment vehicles sponsored and controlled by families. Tax and planning strategies requiring complex trust structures are recommended to and adopted by families of only modest wealth. These intricate arrays serve a variety of purposes, but underlying them all is the goal of giving a family maximum control over its own wealth, especially wealth held in trust.

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