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Wealth & Trust Management Services

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Preserving Your Legacy

First Command Trust Services For Military Personnel & Veterans

Tailored to Military Personnel & Veterans

The foundation of estate planning.

You’ve spent a lifetime establishing your financial security during active service in America's military. By creating a trust, you can protect your family’s financial future. Trusts are often the foundation of estate planning and are an important aspect of financial management. First Command’s Wealth Management & Trust Services Group can provide all the services required to administer your trust and help you preserve, protect and enhance your legacy.

Investment Management Accounts

Exclusively tailored services.

First Command’s Investment Management Accounts (IMA) are asset allocation portfolios designed for high net worth clients. Each portfolio is tailored to the client’s individual risk tolerance and investment objective. IMAs may include mutual funds, individual stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and individual municipal, government or corporate bonds. IMA portfolios may be established by investing proceeds from security liquidations, cash contributions or transferring existing securities in kind to the IMA.

You may be interested in an IMA if you:

  • Hold highly appreciated assets which you wish to sell over a period of time to spread out the tax liability.
  • Own individual stocks or bonds you do not wish to sell.
  • Need state-specific tax-free income.
  • Wish to avoid specific asset classes, such as cash or equities.

Interested in learning more about IMAs? Chat with your First Command Financial Advisor.

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Choosing Your Trustee

The benefits of a corporate trustee.

Appointing First Command as your trustee means your trust will be professionally administered for as long as it endures. Our Trust Officers are trained in financial, legal and accounting issues unique to trust administration, and are authorized to serve as professional trustees in all 50 states. Unlike individual trustees, the Wealth Management & Trust Services Group is subject to regular audits by the Comptroller of the Currency as well as an independent third-party auditor. This helps ensure that we meticulously manage your trust, giving you peace of mind.

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Types of Trust

Trusts come in all shapes and sizes.

Many types of trusts exist. They are flexible, complex, and each have their own unique advantages. If you think you could benefit from a financial plan that incorporates a trust, contact your First Command Financial Advisor. Your Advisor can help you determine what type of trust may best suit your financial needs.

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Safety in Trusts

Protecting your assets.

Even if a bank or trust company fails, trust assets are safe. By law, trust assets must be kept separate from all other bank assets. For example, they cannot be loaned out, mixed with the corporate trustee's own assets or used to satisfy its creditors. Likewise, the books and records of these accounts must also be kept separate from the books and records of other bank activities, such as routine deposit and withdrawal transactions. Because of these safeguards, trust assets are not insured by the FDIC.

Why Set Up A Trust?

Providing efficient transfer of wealth to beneficiaries.

Because a trust can be tailored to your personal financial situation and goals, it can be a flexible estate-planning tool. With careful planning, trusts can be structured to accomplish various objectives for you and your family. With a trust you can:

  • Safeguard an inheritance for your children.
  • Provide for the special needs of certain beneficiaries.
  • Maintain the privacy of your estate.
  • Protect assets from creditors.
  • Reduce income and estate taxes.
  • Avoid probate expenses and delays.
  • Provide for the ongoing management of your assets.

Common Trust Questions

A trust is a legally binding fiduciary relationship in which one person (the grantor) transfers legal title of specified property to another person or entity (the trustee) to keep or use for the benefit of another (the beneficiary). Trusts may be revocable or irrevocable. Revocable trusts may be changed or cancelled at any time. An irrevocable trust, on the other hand, cannot be changed once it is established.
Whether a trust is created under a will, by an agreement funded during the grantor’s lifetime, or by order of the court, the trustee is expected to follow the terms of the governing instrument, as well as all applicable laws and regulations in the administration and operation of the trust. Trustees must establish the trust account, keep detailed and accurate records, provide periodic accountings to the grantor and/or beneficiaries of the trust, make required tax filings and distribute funds as required by the trust agreement.
An estate-planning attorney licensed in your state of residency with experience should draft your trust agreement. At First Command Bank, we believe our expertise is providing trust administration services, so we leave the drafting to the legal community.
This is a myth we fight every day. Most of our clients do not consider themselves wealthy. We invite you to contact us if you have an interest in the services we provide.
The First Command Bank Wealth Management & Trust Services Group invests depending upon the needs of each individual client. Your investment strategy is appropriate for your unique situation so investments may be conservative, aggressive or somewhere in between.
Bank trust departments often act as both custodian and investment manager of client assets. Banking institutions that offer these services are subject to rigorous and frequent examination. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and an independent accounting firm routinely examine the department. In addition, the Trust Administration Committee and the Trust Investment Committee provide ongoing oversight and guidance, with the Board of Directors of First Command Bank having the ultimate responsibility for the department.

Federal regulators routinely examine trust departments for compliance with laws and regulations, as well as the bank’s management of various risks. These thorough on-site examinations occur every 15–18 months.

During an examination, examiners do not simply rely on documentation provided by the institution to determine compliance with banking laws. Examiners sample and test various operations to ensure that important transactions are properly completed and that the recordkeeping function is accurate. In addition, examiners review and test the bank’s internal controls on custodial and investment management activities, conflicts of interest, recordkeeping of securities transactions and management information systems. The testing of internal controls allows the examiner to determine whether the bank is able to identify transactional mistakes or fraudulent activity.