Ethics for Trustees: A Guide for All Who Serve as Trustee

By Jane B. Lorenz and Marguerite C. Lorenz

Written by two longtime Professional Fiduciaries, "Ethics for Trustees", A Guide for All Who Serve as Trustee, is intended as a guideline for everyone who serves as a Trustee of a Trust; Experienced or inexperienced; Attorneys, Fiduciaries, CPAs, Family Members and Friends, etc. Quotes and concepts have been drawn from personal experience, from the Professional Fiduciary Association of California (PFAC) Code of Ethics and from the most recent California Probate Code (2011).

Review by an experienced Trusts and Estates Attorney:
Ethics for Trustees is an excellent guidebook that draws together important resources and reference materials. It covers some topics few other writers have addressed, and the authors draw on wealth of personal experience. The writing is clear and concise. It is a valuable addition to my professional library.

Meredith G. Alcock
Trusts and estates attorney
www.aalapc.com

Review by an Independent Financial Advisor:

Whether you are already serving as a professional trustee or considering taking on this role for the first time, we recommend this book. Serving as a trustee is a challenging responsibility. This book will help you understand what is expected of you and how to best meet the role of trustee.

Troy B. Daum, CFP
Principal
Wealth Analytics
www.WealthAnalytics.com

The Authors:
Jane B. Lorenz, CPA, CLPF has been practicing as a CPA since 1975 and started serving as a Professional Trustee around 1990.
Marguerite C. Lorenz, CTFA, CLPF began working with Jane in 2003 and has been serving as a Professional Trustee ever since.
This book is a labor of love. They know from experience the challenges facing todays Fiduciary, whether amateur or professional. Many professional Fiduciaries operate as sole proprietors, without partners or staff . Jane and Marguerite have benefitted so much from their partnership and business model, they feel good about sharing some of what they have learned.

The Readers:
Everyone who is in the Estate Planning Process can benefit from a better understanding of what their Successor can and should do. The documents alone do nothing. The selection of the appropriate Successor Trustee is vitally important, as this is the one trusted to fulfill the Estate Plan provisions. How can the right Successor be selected if the one choosing is not familiar with what the job entails? Reading this concise volume gives the reader just what is needed. Before one accepts the role of Trustee he/she should understand the liability, the ethical issues and the depth of responsibility. We believe that reading this book may prevent family upset and financial disaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456767273

Jane B. Lorenz

Jane B. Lorenz, CPA, CLPF has served as a Private Trustee for more than 20 years. Marguerite C. Lorenz, CTFA, CLPF has been Jane's partner since 2003. Jane and Marguerite have served individually on more than 100 trusts, with almost 30 years of combined experience. Both Jane and Marguerite actively encourage professionals in the Estate Planning Arena to do their best for the most vulnerable members of our community; the disabled and the elderly. "Ethics for Trustees" has been written to motivate and educate anyone and everyone who serves as Trustee; Professional Fiduciaries, Attorneys, Family Members, CPA's, Friends, etc. Those people who are contemplating their own Estate Plan should read this book as the selection of the individual who administers the Trust, the Trustee, is as important as the documents themselves. Jane and Marguerite have developed a great staff team within their accountancy corporation (Lorenz Fiduciary Services, Inc.), continue their education in Fiduciary topics and deeply enjoy their work as Trustees. They believe that everyone has the ability to live at choice and this book is labor of love to encourage good choices. Marguerite is Jane's stepdaughter (they met when Marguerite was just 6 years old). Clay Spiegel, CPA, Jane's son, has joined their practice and is currently going through the Fiduciary licensing process. Their office of operations is in Fallbrook, staffed by 5 team members. They keep meeting offices in La Jolla/UTC and Rancho Bernardo, San Diego County, California. Jane, Clay and Marguerite share a large extended family which celebrates milestones and holidays together.

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Chapter 12:

Chapter 13:

Chapter 14:

Chapter 15:

Chapter 16:

Chapter 17:

This book was provided to you by:

________________________________

The person who provided you with this book wants to see you enjoy your life, your Trust administered well, and your Successor Trustee handle the job correctly.

Foreword

I AM A YOUNG CPA who decided to get into the fiduciary industry a couple of years ago. At that point I knew I was interested in accounting and finance, and that I had always enjoyed working with individuals. I did not know this work would fit for me, and I did not know that it would require such discipline and commitment to austere principles.

The reason I was willing to try a new profession with which I had so little previous experience or knowledge, was that I knew I had mentors with this experience to share. Jane and Marguerite Lorenz invited me to join their practice, and support my training. After two short years of experience in our office I have seen how complex the job can be, and I wonder how anyone can learn the ropes without an experienced mentor (or two). How would I know the many traps that await a trustee? How would I know how to avoid all the conflict that is rife within every decision? How would I even know how to start and who to go to for help and support for my client?

Licensing is new to the profession, thanks to the Professional Fiduciary Association of California (PFAC), but many professionals are exempt from this process. CPAs, Attorneys and Broker Dealers/Investment Advisors can act as a Professional Fiduciary without obtaining a license. As a new CPA, I am exempt from licensing; however, I decided to pursue my license because it still offers value to me and our company.

The estate planning industry is not young itself, but the many niche careers within it are young and blossoming. The education and training within these niches is therefore difficult to come by. Licensing for fiduciaries requires this education and training and shows all interested parties that a licensed individual has sought this training and adheres to the principles which the governing bodies (PFAC and the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau) have set forth. A young, inexperienced professional does not have the experience to show potential clients and referrers, so they must do anything they can to earn their trust.

Jane and Marguerite bring many years of successful experience to this book, and they are helping the industry as a whole by sharing that experience and understanding of the profession. There are so many difficult decisions a trustee will encounter, and this book will help to prepare any professional or amateur to better approach them. Anyone reading this has demonstrated their desire to learn more, and to be the best trustee they can be. The reader clearly wants to learn how to see the traps and conflicts before or when they arrive, so I applaud you for making this effort. I hope that this profession will grow and earn the respect that it deserves because of all the honorable, principled professionals that make it up.

The professional Fiduciary, by definition, must provide the HIGHEST standard of care, must be equitable, fair and honest. Ethics are within each of us, and different to each of us, but the specific situations and specific standards within an industry, like estate planning, are not inherently known to anyone. That is why this book needed to be written, and why it can provide value to even the most experienced professional fiduciary, anyone considering serving as a trustee or executor even once, and everyone in between.

When I was still very new to our company, our office received a gift from a service provider that appeared to be more than $50 in value. I looked at this beautiful gift and recommended that we graciously return it, because it did not seem free of conflict. It was not a commission or a bribe, but a thoughtful thank you. The appearance of conflict was there, however, and it did not seem worth the risk. It is amazing that I saw this, considering it was from my mentor’s training that I had viewed the situation this way, but that goes