Multi-Participant Trusts Need a CoordinatorMulti-Participant Trusts Need a Coordinator

John P.C. Duncan & Anita M. Sarafa

Multi-participant trusts¹ have become immensely popular. These trusts replace the single, all-powerful trustee with a host of independent decisionmakers, all deriving their authority directly from the trust instrument.

At first, we saw multi-trustee trusts whose co-trustees, instead of sharing all trustee powers as was traditional, were each assigned discrete roles. That approach quickly evolved into today's multi-participant trusts that have a directed trustee — plus: At a minimum, there's also a trust advisor or investment committee with sole power over all investment decisions or a particular asset, such as a closely held company. Sometimes, there's also another trust advisor to advise the trustee on i...