Establishing a business as a trustee

[Guest R. Daestrom]

Does anyone know what criteria must be met, or what steps have to be taken, if any, for a company to be set up as a trustee for retirement plans? There doesn't seem to be much, if any, in naming an individual as a trustee. Does the same apply to another company being named trustee?

The situation is that the owner of a small financial company handles most of the investments for the retirement plans that they are involved with. All of the plans currently have individual trustees. I'm not sure where the financial is going with this, but they seem interested in being names as the plan trustee. I'm assuming it will free them up to manage the assets more freely, and possibly be able to charge a trustee fee in doing so. Can you think of any other motives here?

[IRC401]

There are state laws regulating trust companies. The company needs to find some competent legal adivsors if it wants trust company status.