Grow Your Legacy with the Trust Department at Sturgis Bank

At Sturgis Bank, we recognize that your legacy can have long-lasting effects on your family and your community. Our Trust Department focuses on preserving your assets and protecting those you love. We provide top-notch, locally delivered, and comprehensive fiduciary services. With Sturgis Bank as your Trustee or Personal Representative, you will have the benefit of an impartial entity with experience in managing various family dynamics and end-of-life situations.

The estate and asset management services available from our Trust Department include estate settlements, trust administration, record keeping, and investment management.

Trust Administration for Grantor/Revocable Living Trusts   

The Trust Department at Sturgis Bank can also support you with the administration of a living trust. As your trustee or co-trustee, our responsibilities would include:

• Asset management
• Bill paying
• Real estate maintenance
• Tax filings
• Insurance claim filings

Trust Administration: Irrevocable Trusts

If you elect to create an irrevocable trust as part of your estate planning, Sturgis Bank can help with administrative needs. Although you’re unable to modify the terms of an irrevocable trust, this financial tool can offer some tax benefits not available with revocable trusts.

Types of irrevocable trusts we manage include:

• Testamentary Trusts - created upon death to direct the distribution of assets.This type of irrevocable trust is useful when minor children are beneficiaries because they may eliminate the need for a court-appointed conservator. As your Trustee, our responsibilities would include:
  • Identifying and collecting assets
  • Tax filings
  • Charitable gifts
• Life Insurance Trusts - ‘own’ the proceeds from life insurance policies, which can exempt the funds from taxation as part of your estate. A life insurance trust can also provide beneficiaries with financial support to pay for any final expenses. As your trustee, Sturgis Bank will distribute proceeds as you direct in the document.
• Special Needs Trusts - set up for individuals with special needs to provide supplemental funds without reducing any government benefits.

Estate Settlements: Personal Representative

When you name Sturgis Bank as the Personal Representative of your estate, you’ll have a professional, experienced Trust Officer managing your legacy.

Our responsibilities include:

• Identifying and collecting assets
• Paying debts and expenses
• Assuring timely and accurate tax filings
• Processing Health and Life Insurance claims
• Managing assets
• Filing comprehensive Court accountings promptly
• Making financial distributions to beneficiaries

Management/Recordkeeping Services

The fiduciary responsibilities of Sturgis Bank may extend beyond trusts to include the management and special recordkeeping of the following types of accounts:

• Custody services: the settlement, safekeeping, and reporting of your marketable securities and cash.
• Pension plan paying agency: for processing benefit payments and handling applicable tax reporting.
• Scholarship Trusts: scholarship distributions.

Importantly, choosing our Trust Department as your Personal Representative ensures the estate settlement is:

• Objective, without the conflicts of interest that can arise with individual Personal Representatives
• Protected from any misappropriation of funds or assets

Contact us today to learn how the Trust Department at Sturgis Bank can help you reach your financial goals.