Estate and Trust

With nearly 40 years of experience providing trust administration, estate settlement and investment management services for individuals, families and institutional clients, the professionals at Baird Trust can help you protect, grow and transfer your wealth in a way that reflects your values and vision for the future.

We offer the following key services for individuals, families and institutional clients:

• Trustee Services
• Investment Management
• Estate Settlement

Trustee Services

Baird Trust can serve as a corporate trustee on numerous types of trusts. While an individual trustee may be more familiar with family dynamics and the intent behind a trust, relying on a corporate trustee has significant advantages.  Our professional trust administration provides:

• Experienced investment portfolio management
• Objective decision-making, based on trust terms and applicable trust law
• Uninterrupted service due to disability or death (*as often occurs with individual trustees)
• Helping heirs understand how terms of their trusts affect them
• Impartiality in serving trust beneficiaries

Trust Investment Management

Our investment philosophy centers on owning high-quality investments over the long term, a philosophy that has remained unchanged since our founding in 1984. Our Core + Satellite investment approach provides a well-diversified portfolio with an emphasis on quality, which lowers volatility and increases returns over time.

The “Core” allocation is comprised of our Large Cap Equity Strategy – an internally managed portfolio of 25 to 30 companies that has been a hallmark of Baird Trust for over 25 years. The “Satellite” allocation provides exposure to multiple asset classes.

Trust Estate Settlement

By serving as executor of your client’s estate, our experienced Estate Settlement team can ensure their assets are distributed per their wishes with the utmost sensitivity, efficiency and privacy. Our settlement process includes:

• Securing, inventorying and managing all estate assets
• Communicating with and updating all relevant parties throughout the process, including family members and legal and financial representatives
• Carrying out the terms of wills, codicils and trusts
• Working with trustees, legal and tax advisors to determine the estate’s full extent and value
• Coordinating the preparation and filing of final income, estate, and inheritance tax returns
• Distributing and closing the estate

Baird Trust can serve as the appointed executor or as the agent for an appointed individual executor to settle the affairs of the deceased. In this role, our team secures the decedent’s assets, assists in preparing legal and tax documents, and distributes the estate assets.

For more information on our trust services, click here.