Guide · 8 min · Last reviewed 30 September 2026
Kinds of trustee
The office can be filled by a person or by a company, and the companies are not all the same kind. This page describes four of them, and it does not tell you which one to name.
In brief
- A person brings judgment, and a succession problem.
- A bank trust department and a trust company chartered to serve the public are built to outlast one officer.
- A private trust company is the family's own company. It is the trustee. Its board decides.
- An administrator, counsel, an accountant, an investment adviser, and a custodian are not the trustee.
A person
A spouse, a brother, or the lawyer who wrote the document is still the most common first trustee. They know the family. They also get sick, move, take sides, or die, and then the trust is looking for a successor at a bad time.
One person is also one person's judgment on investments and on who gets a payment, unless the instrument sends those decisions somewhere else. That is a fit when the family wanted their judgment. It is a poor shape when the reason for the trust was to get those decisions out of a family argument. Ask counsel which of those you are writing.
Two trustees do not lighten the job unless the document says one of them can act alone. Otherwise they act together, and each is supposed to watch the other. A co-trustee who signs whatever is put in front of him has not limited his duty. He has written down that he was in the room.
A big firm or a small one
A large regulated trust company that serves the public, or a bank's trust department, is built so the institution outlasts the officer. They are examined. They have a process that looks the same on a lot of accounts. If a lender has said it wants a name it recognizes, this is the kind of name people mean. Confirm that with the lender and with counsel. Don't take this paragraph as the lender's answer.
The officer will change. The investments are often expected to move onto the firm's platform. Distributions go through a process written for many clients. If the firm also invests the money, you are paying it twice, and you should decide with counsel whether you want that before you sign.
A smaller regulated firm takes fewer clients. You are more likely to keep the people you met. They are more often willing to be a directed trustee and leave the portfolio with your adviser. They are still licensed, which is what a custodian is usually asking for. What they may not have is the bench of the large firm. Ask who owns them, who succeeds the principals, and what happens to the trusts if the firm is sold.
A bank trust department
A bank trust department is a trustee inside a bank. The practical points are the ones above: an institution, examinations, a platform, and officer turnover. The legal home of that department is a question for counsel in the bank's state. It is not the same thing as a private trust company formed for one family.
A trust company that serves the public
A trust company chartered to serve the public can accept trusts from people who are not one family. That is the ordinary institutional trustee. Families sometimes use the same words, "trust company," for their own company. They are different things. At first mention on a page, this site says "a regulated trust company that serves the public" for the first, and "private trust company" for the family's.
A private trust company
A private trust company is a company the family forms so that the company, not a person and not a public firm, is the trustee. Continuity is the board's problem. That is the point, and it is also the work. The Wyoming forms are in the next guide. Whether to use one is a question for counsel, not a conclusion of this page.
Side by side
| Who decides investments | A person. The person, unless the instrument directs them. |
|---|---|
| Who decides distributions | A person. The person, unless a committee or adviser holds the power. |
| Who supervises it | A person. The law of fiduciaries, and the courts if someone complains. |
| Continuity | A person. Ends with that person unless a successor is named and will serve. |
| Cost pattern | A person. Often little or nothing, until the work is real. |
| When people look at it | A person. When they want that person's judgment and have a real successor. |
| When it is a poor fit | A person. When the point was to get the decision out of the family argument. |
Swipe sideways. The first column stays put.
| Topic | A person | Bank trust department | Trust company serving the public | Private trust company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides investments | The person, unless the instrument directs them. | Usually the department, unless the trust is directed. | The company, unless the trust is directed. | The board, a committee, or the adviser the instrument names. |
| Who decides distributions | The person, unless a committee or adviser holds the power. | The department's process, unless directed. | The company's process, unless directed. | The committee or the board, as the instrument says. |
| Who supervises it | The law of fiduciaries, and the courts if someone complains. | The bank's regulators, and the courts. | The chartering supervisor, and the courts. | Depends on the kind. In Wyoming an unregulated company is not supervised by the Division of Banking. A chartered one is examined. |
| Continuity | Ends with that person unless a successor is named and will serve. | The institution continues. The officer changes. | The institution continues. The officer changes. | The company continues. The board can change. |
| Cost pattern | Often little or nothing, until the work is real. | Often a percentage of assets, with a minimum, and extras. | Often a percentage of assets. A directed trustee should cost less than one that also invests. | The cost of a board and of administration, not a platform fee. This site does not quote a fee. |
| When people look at it | When they want that person's judgment and have a real successor. | When a lender or a custodian wants a known, licensed name. | When they want staff and a process, and may want the firm's platform. | When they will keep a board and want to keep the advisers they have. |
| When it is a poor fit | When the point was to get the decision out of the family argument. | When the family means to keep its own investment adviser. | When the family does not want the firm's products. | When nobody will meet, or a bank has said it will only accept a licensed trustee now. |
Ask counsel which row matters here. The table is a map, not a choice.
Where the other providers sit
An administrator keeps the record. Counsel drafts. An accountant prepares returns. An investment adviser may direct investments if the instrument says so. A custodian holds accounts. None of them is the trustee because they do that work. Somerell is an administrator of private trust companies. It is not the trustee.
Next: Private trust companies in Wyoming
Somerell administers private trust companies in Wyoming. It is not a trust company or a bank. It does not act as trustee or in any other fiduciary capacity, and does not offer to. It is not chartered or supervised by the Wyoming Division of Banking. Nothing on this site is legal, tax or investment advice.