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A trust company has been referred to as a near- bank; while technically it differs from a bank in mandate and services offered, it also provides banking services such as chequing accounts, savings and loans, investments and credit cards.
A trust company may be owned by or be part of a chartered bank or building society. The "trust" name refers to the ability of the institution's trust department to act as a trustee - someone who administers financial assets on behalf of another.
A trustee will manage investments, keep records, manage assets and prepare court accountings, paying bills and (depending on the nature of the trust) medical expenses, charitable gifts, inheritances or other distributions of income and principal.
Most of the other day-to-day operation of a trust company differs very little (if at all) from that of other banking institutions.
A trust company can be named as an executor or personal representative in a last will and testament. The responsibilities of an executor in settling the estate of a deceased person include collecting debts, settling claims for debt and taxes, accounting for assets to the courts and distributing wealth to beneficiaries.
Estate planning is usually also offered to allow clients to structure their affairs so as to minimise inheritance taxes and probate costs.
A trust officer may provide guardian and conservator services, acting as guardian of a minor's property until adulthood or as conservator of the estate of an adult unable to handle his or her own finances.
A trust department provides investment management, including securities market advice, investment strategy and portfolio managementManagement (from Old French, "menagement" "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin "manum agere" "lead by the hand") characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and mani, management of real estateReal estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty , in contrast with personal property, or and safekeeping of valuables .
The trust company may also provide escrowEscrow is a legal arrangement whereby a thing (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contigency or the fulfullm services, invest educationEducation encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, good judgement and wisdom. One of the fundamental goals of education is to impart culture across the generations ( or retirementRetirement is the status of a worker who has stopped working. This usually happens upon reaching a determined age, when physical conditions don't allow the person to work any more (by illness or accident), or even for personal choice (usually in the prese funds or hold Starker exchange proceeds where cash from the sale of US real estate is held in trust (for tax purposes) until used to buy replacement landLand is sometimes used synonymously with country. Land can also be for "a land of a people", particularly in the absence of a state or government, which is rather implicated by the near-synonym country. The land is the part of the Earth that is not covere.