What We Do for Our Clients
At Rice, Heard & Bigelow, thoughtful and balanced input from legal, tax and investment professionals benefits clients as they develop strategies for gift, estate and tax planning. Comprehensive services provided by the firm include the administration of trusts, investment management, tax planning and the preparation of income tax returns.
Trust Management
Tracing its roots to the first private trustee office in the nation, RHB is now one of the few places where individuals and families can go for professional management of their personal assets and affairs by individuals, not corporations, serving as their trustees. This traditional fiduciary approach is now highly unusual in the world of trust companies, corporate trustees, national banks and institutional investment advisors. Rather than follow that path, RHB has remained independent and driven by the quality of its people and its clients.
Trustees at RHB forge close relationships with our clients, be they grantors of revocable trusts, fourth-generation beneficiaries of an irrevocable trust or charitable entities. RHB trustees generally serve until retirement, avoiding the turnover of “relationship managers” or “account officers,” and often become trusted advisors to families on a variety of matters.
The role of a trustee
Trustees have a much broader set of responsibilities than investment managers, with whom they are often compared. In addition to the financial management of trust assets, a trustee’s responsibilities include evaluating and making appropriate distributions from the trust, keeping accurate records of the trust’s administration, communicating with and accounting to the trust grantors and beneficiaries, and filing trust tax returns. A trustee is also required to adhere to a set of duties, both those laid out in the trust instrument and under state law, that focus on confidentiality, impartiality, loyalty, and skill in administering the trust in accordance with its terms.
Different types of entities and individuals are able to serve as trustees. The standard reference work on trusteeship, A Trustee’s Handbook by Loring & Rounds, identifies several trustee options in addition to that of the independent professional trustee, including lawyers, brokers, banks, and family members. In the view of this standard manual of trustee practice, the ideal scenario is for grantors and beneficiaries to work with a professional trustee at a private trust company.
Rice, Heard & Bigelow is one such company, serving individual, family and charity clients for more than 200 years.
Traditional and ESG investing
RHB trustees believe that the management of risk is as important in investing as is the search for return, and strive to create diversified portfolios in a disciplined and tax-efficient manner. Trustees at RHB are advised by Minot DeBlois Advisors, a wholly owned registered investment advisory firm, regarding the investment of trust assets. Formed in 2009, Minot DeBlois Advisors also manages assets not held in trust, including individual accounts and IRAs for existing clients.
We maintain a flexible and highly individualized investment approach. The appropriate asset allocation in any trust depends on the risk tolerance of the client, the length of time we have to invest and the need for current income. We believe it is vital to know each client’s goals, objectives, constraints and tax considerations, and that communication and shared expectations are at the heart of successful investment results. One example is the management of revocable trusts according to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) principles.
Rice, Heard & Bigelow stands ready to assist clients with investing for social impact within a prudent and diversified portfolio. In all cases, the trustees will discuss with the client their fiduciary duty to invest with prudence and care as they incorporate ESG into the investment process. Although the creators of revocable trusts have wide latitude to direct that specific securities be held, or not, in trust portfolios, the role of beneficiaries of irrevocable trusts is consultative.
Benjamin Franklin, by Duplessis, 1778.
Benjamin Franklin’s bequest
In the long history of Rice, Heard & Bigelow and its predecessor firms, the management of Benjamin Franklin’s bequest to the City of Boston is an interesting early example of what today would fall under the broad rubric of socially-responsible investing. Franklin’s bequest encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs by granting loans to the next generation of businessmen like himself. His trustees sought a social good while also earning an economic return for the charitable fund that was his financial legacy to the city.
Estate Planning
Three RHB trustees are experienced estate planning attorneys and, utilizing their knowledge of estate, gift and GST-transfer tax laws, they routinely meet with clients to discuss their estate planning needs. RHB trustees work closely with a client’s outside estate planning attorney. We use our knowledge of the client’s financial situation, family circumstances and goals to streamline the estate planning process in a way that ensures an efficient result: a well-crafted estate plan.
RHB trustees also serve as personal representatives or executors and work with legal counsel to efficiently probate the estate, file the necessary estate and income tax returns and administer, terminate or fund trusts as required. In some longstanding family relationships, we also serve as agents under durable powers of attorney and health care proxies.
Tax Services
RHB’s tax department offers comprehensive services to individuals, trusts, estates and charitable entities. All income tax returns are prepared in-house by professionals with broad experience in handling a variety of tax issues on the federal and state levels. In combination with RHB’s expertise in trust administration and investment management, our tax department develops tax and financial planning strategies that enable the firm to better advise its clients. All tax preparation services are billed on an hourly basis.