A Conversation With ... Jami Peebles

What is Central Trust & Investment Co.’s purpose?
We do two things at a trust company. We manage investments, and we take care of people. Some people hire us just to do investment management, and come to us and say, “I don’t care about estate planning, and I don’t care about trusts. Here’s my money, and I just want you to manage it and grow it for me.”

The other half of the people hire us because they want our advice on estate planning and estate administration, asking “What should I have in my trust to help me get where I want to be, and will you take it care of it when I die? Will you take care of the details?” So there are really three phases: investment management, trust and estate administration.

Who needs an estate plan?
Everyone needs some sort of estate plan. It might only be a power of attorney and a will, or it may be more complex and include a revocable living trust. This can be determined by (an) attorney. An estate plan can be drafted to handle all kinds of situations (and) should always include a health care directive and a health care power of attorney.
 
What age groups can benefit most from using trusts as an estate planning tool?
They can be used across the board. I think the awareness of trusts or estate plans is much greater than it used to be, certainly for the baby boomer generation, which has been the overachievers, the accumulators. They are very aware of estate planning. … Many of our clients who are in that working, baby boomer segment own their own businesses and are entrepreneurs. And now they’re trying to figure out, “What am I going to do with my business?” … Sometimes, people focus on the estate tax savings associated (with trusts and planning). And really, what’s equally important is that it’s a plan on how they want to leave their assets, and how they want them to impact the people they’re leaving them to. … (A trust and estate plan) is a road map (that) says, “Here’s what I’ve accumulated, whether it’s my company or my savings. And here’s how I want it taken care of – maybe I want it held in trust to benefit my kids and grandkids. Maybe I want it to go to charity. Maybe I want it split, or maybe I want it held forever to benefit certain charitable organizations.” (The plan documents tell) the trustee what do with the assets, and it also contains information about what to do if they become disabled.

What are some examples of situations Central Trust helps clients handle?
We have kids in college, and we’re managing a deceased parent’s trust for their benefit, so now that college kid may be our client, and we’re helping them with budgeting and getting through school and almost becoming a surrogate parent in some ways. We might, in the next minute, be out at a nursing home helping someone older pay their bills or transition to the next phase of their life, and the next day, we may be at a local business meeting with a baby boomer business owner, helping them formulate a business succession plan.

What are the main hurdles to getting people to think about estate planning?
I think the first hurdle is that when you’re doing an estate plan, you’re talking about what’s going to happen at your death, and nobody likes to think about death. I think that’s a really big emotional hurdle. And once you get past that, so many of our baby boomers are in second marriages, so there may be a conflict there if you have children of different marriages or you’re blending assets, so that can be a challenge. I think, again, so many of the baby boomers have started businesses, and maybe their children aren’t capable or don’t have an interest in running those businesses, and they don’t know what to do, so instead of sitting down and trying to come up with a plan, they just don’t want to deal with it.

Do – or should – clients involve their families in the process of estate planning or creating a trust?
I have some families who do involve their children, and some who don’t, and it really just depends on the family dynamic. I have a lot of families that don’t want their kids to know anything about their money until they’re gone, because their goal is to spend every last dime, or they want their kids to do it on their own, to achieve financial success and not be aware of what the parents have.
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