As a fiduciary financial advisor in Ponte Vedra Beach, Holland Capital helps you decide how trust money should be invested, what it can reasonably provide, and how it fits with the accounts you own outside the trust. We put each portfolio into one family plan, then manage it according to a written investment policy.
Part of the family money is already in a trust.
That may be money your parents left behind, money held for your children or grandchildren, or assets you placed in a trust yourself. Outside the trust, you still have retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, cash and the rest of your own financial life.
The hard part is not keeping track of the statements. It is deciding what each pool of money is supposed to do.
How much should the trust reasonably provide? How should it be invested if some of the money may be needed soon and the rest may stay invested for years? Should your own portfolio take the same risks as the trust? And when you look at everything together, are you taking more risk than you realize?
We begin with those questions. Holland Capital lays out what you own, what sits inside the trust, what sits outside it and what each part of the money needs to accomplish. Then we write down how each portfolio should be invested and manage the accounts to those instructions.
Start with What Each Pool of Money Is For
Before anyone changes investments, we need to know what the money has to do.
Your own accounts may need to support retirement, large purchases, gifts or other family goals. Trust money may have a different purpose and a different group of people depending on it.
Those needs drive the portfolio. Your own retirement accounts may need to produce cash while a trust continues to grow for another purpose.
Our retirement planning work puts your own spending and retirement needs into the plan. Then we can see what role the trust should play beside them.
When Part of the Family Money Is in a Trust
A trust creates a separate set of questions.
What is the money for? Who may receive it? How much might reasonably be distributed? What expenses or future needs should the portfolio be ready to cover? How much should remain invested?
Those questions come before choosing investments.
A trust expected to make regular distributions has a different job from one meant to stay invested for many years, and its written policy says so.
We help turn that purpose into an investment plan.
The trustee, whether that is you, a family member or a trust company, still makes the trustee’s decisions. The attorney keeps the legal work, and the CPA prepares the returns. We focus on the financial work: what the portfolio needs to provide, how it should be invested and how it fits with the rest of the family’s money.
Our guide to estate and wealth transfer planning explains how trusts can fit into the larger family plan.
The Trust Should Not Be Planned in Isolation
You may have one portfolio in the trust and another outside it, but you still have one financial life.
You see it when the same investments appear in several accounts, when one portfolio is taking most of the risk, or when your own accounts are being managed without considering what the trust may provide.
We look across the whole picture.
That does not mean every account should look the same. It means every account should have a job.
Once the plan is written, each portfolio gets its own investment policy statement. It records what that money needs to fund, how much risk it can carry and the role it plays in the larger plan.
Our asset location guide explains why different investments may belong in different accounts.
Investing Each Portfolio for Its Job
We manage each account to its own policy while keeping the family picture in view.
That can mean the trust is invested differently from your retirement accounts. It can mean a brokerage account has a different job from money meant for future generations. It can also mean leaving something alone when there is no good reason to change it.
What you already own is the starting point. The aim is not matching statements. It is each portfolio serving the purpose the plan gives it.
Our investment management carries out those policies.
Working with Holland Capital
Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.
The first meeting covers the whole family picture. Recent statements for each account, the trust documents you have and last year’s tax return are enough to start. If a trust company or another advisor handles a trust, bring what they send you as well.
You will hear what we see, what we would leave alone and what we would do first. Your attorney and CPA keep their roles, and we give them one set of figures to work from.
The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Ponte Vedra Beach primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the Regus center at The Veranda, 822 North A1A Highway.
For clients whose investments we manage, accounts are held directly at Charles Schwab in the client’s own name. Holland Capital manages the investments but does not take custody of client assets. If a client ever needs in-person assistance from Schwab, the closest branch is in Jacksonville Beach at 2400 3rd Street South.
We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.
Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.
RETIREMENT ENGINEERING™
The Order Matters
Five retirement decisions and why timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Help with a Family Trust?
With the financial part of it.
We can help the trustee decide what the portfolio needs to provide, how it should be invested, how much risk fits its job and how the trust fits with the family’s other accounts.
The attorney handles the legal work. The CPA handles the tax return. The trustee still makes the decisions that belong to the trustee.
Should the Trust and My Own Accounts Be Invested the Same Way?
Not necessarily.
Your own accounts may need to support retirement and current spending while the trust serves a different purpose. We look at both together, then give each portfolio the mix that fits its job.
How Do We Decide What the Trust Can Reasonably Distribute?
We start with what the trust needs to fund, what may be needed later and how the portfolio is invested.
The goal is to give the trustee a financial framework for making distribution decisions without treating the trust as though it exists apart from the rest of the family plan.
Whose Interests Does a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Serve When a Trust Is Involved?
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. For your own accounts, that means advice in your interest. For a trust account, it means advice in the interest of the trust and the people it was written for.
If a trust account moves under our management, what we are paid goes up. We tell the trustee that and show the fee before the trustee decides.
Do I Need a Fiduciary Financial Advisor Who Lives in Ponte Vedra Beach?
No. Most of our work happens by video or phone, with the statements and trust documents on the screen. That also suits families whose trustees and beneficiaries live in different states.
When sitting down in person helps, we can meet by appointment at the Regus center at The Veranda on North A1A.
Photo: Mondae711 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
