Institutional Litigation & Consulting

Trusts

Bates experts have provided consulting and testimony services to trusts, estates and conservatorships, often providing essential perspective and information to counsel.  Trust consulting requires a high degree of specific knowledge, and disputes in this area often benefit most from the guidance that can be supplied by an experienced expert team. 

Our team brings decades of experience in the trust market segment, and can bring/add clarity to any aspect of trust structure, the duty of trustees, the selection of assets and asset management within a trust, and collateral arrangement standards. 

Members of the Bates Institutional team have previously served as members of trust management committees and have extensive experience in developing policies and procedures as managers of trusts.  Our experts have also supervised the exercise of discretion in complex fiduciary matters and are able to provide invaluable guidance in understanding the applicable standards in doing so.  Our team members have also been called upon extensively to provide opinions on the suitability of trust portfolios for both individual and charitable purposes, and adherence to the prudent investor rule, in both state and federal court.

The many CFA charter holders on our team have provided testimony and consulting services as they relate to all aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and the total return/total portfolio focus as outlined by the Uniform Prudent Investor Act.  We are also prepared to provide explicit help in differentiating the requirements under this Act versus under the Prudent Man Rule, and have been called upon to do so in various state courts.