Introduction to Fiduciary Practices - A Live Webinar Series

Introduction to Fiduciary Practices-

A Live Webinar Series

Join us: the second Tuesday of each month at 1:30 pm Central Standard Time.

Designed specifically for Trust Operations Staff, Trust Administrative Assistants, and Investment Assistants

Administrative Assistants and Operations staff perform their tasks more effectively if they understand more about Fiduciary/Trust matters
Have the regulators / auditors suggested you should do more staff training?
Are you finding it hard to find time to train new staff?
Have there been operational errors because your staff didn’t understand why they were performing certain tasks?
Are you finding the new hires in these positions expect career development training?

Take full advantage of this cost effective training solution. Capitalize on our expertise and experience and give your staff what they need.

Introduction to Fiduciary Practices Webinar Series—10 Unique Topic Modules—10 hours of invaluable training

MODULE 1 – Introduction to Trust and the Fiduciary	MODULE 6 – Uniformity and Uniform Law
MODULE 2– Trust Regulation – The Backbone of the Industry	MODULE 7 – Introduction to Securities
MODULE 3 – Types of Trusts	MODULE 8 – Key Concepts of Risk and Risk Management
MODULE 4 – 17 Duties of the Fiduciary	MODULE 9 – Key Concepts of Valuation
MODULE 5– Account Reviews	MODULE 10 – Audit, Control and Monitoring

You might also consider participation by Financial Advisors who are expected to sell for or refer to Trust.
One live webinar each month (except December). The Introduction, Orientation and Overview session is conducted twice a year and available by recording anytime.
Each webinar is approximately 60 minutes. Scroll down to see detailed description of each module.
Join the series at any time during the year, each module is self-contained. There is no required pre-work or completion of another course.
Webinar session are NOT computer-generated. Live sessions are recorded and provided for later viewing if you miss the original session.
Each segment offers discussion topics to facilitate in-house mentoring following the webinar.
Onsite delivery and facilitation of the training program is also available.

Participant feedback:

“It is so helpful to have refresher information, as well as, information I did not know. I love having the opportunity to gain knowledge about the industry. These are just the right amount of time too!”

– Dana Koen, Bank Ozarks

Investment Options:

$2500 for the Program Annually. This allows your institution unlimited seats for the webinar. If you have new employees that need to participate, you may just continue your subscription or purchase individual sessions as needed. ($2250 for retainer clients)
If you have a cohort of participants in your organization and you want a customized program, the investment will be $5500 per series (10 sessions). ($4950 for retainer clients)
If you have a very small team – 2 or less participants – please see contact us for special limited seat pricing.

Webinar sessions include:

MODULE ONE – Introduction to Trust and the Fiduciary

This introductory course provides an overview of basic and key concepts relating to Trust, U.S. Common Law, and Fiduciary principals by describing the roles of the fiduciary, the agent and the trustee in the context of the needs of the grantor and the beneficiary. Trust methodologies of principal and income accounting and discretionary versus non-discretionary are also introduced. The significance of each notion is explained under the backdrop of industry best practices, the Prudent Person Rule, US Securities Acts and Modern Portfolio Theory.

MODULE TWO – Trust Regulation – The Backbone of the Industry

This session provides the participant an overview of core regulations that permit banks to open and operate trust departments and function as fiduciaries. Participants will review and become familiar with 12CFR12 Regulation 9 which is the industry benchmark that parallels the securities and record keeping regulations of all Federal financial regulators. The program will focus on the OCC’s Trust and Asset Management Handbook, which sets standards for prevalent industry best practice in policies and procedures used to support fiduciary business in the United States. Board of Director responsibilities, control and oversight framework, operational and reputational risk are some of the topics covered in this segment.

MODULE THREE – Types of Trusts

What Trusts do and how they function and what triggers their creation are covered in this session. The notion of account acceptance is introduced as well as an overview of specific trust types: such as express versus implied; testamentary; living versus intro vivos; revocable and irrevocable; personal and charitable; guardianship; executor; administrator; and directed and delegated trusts, IRAs and agencies are presented. In addition, a basic understanding of perpetual, asset protection and trust decanting is provided alongside an overview of corporate trust products.

MODULE FOUR – 17 Duties of the Fiduciary

The important aspects of a trustee’s duties and responsibilities are covered in this session. Beginning with the highest duty-that of loyalty- the session breaks down and describes key attributes and responsibilities related to administration, delegation, accounting, recordkeeping, and providing information. The duties of exercising care and skill, taking and keeping control, preserving value, and enforcing and defending claims are also described. Trust Department duties to segregate trust assets from bank deposits to make property productive and to make payments are also outlined. The foundational duty of remaining impartial is discussed in addition to the specific duties of co-fiduciaries and where others control certain trust powers.

MODULE FIVE – Account Reviews

The Account Review process is the most important and useful tool bank fiduciaries have to ensure they can meet their fiduciary responsibilities and properly administer customer accounts. Through reviews of regulations and OCC guidance, the participants will gain insight into account review requirements whether the process is manual or automated. The six lines of defense: pre-acceptance, post-initial acceptance, annual investment review, periodic administrative review, watch list and account closing review are each explained with an eye to process and industry best practices such as the Investment Policy Statement and the use of asset retention letters, where required.

MODULE SIX – Uniformity and Uniform Law

An overview of the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution, and the specific impact it has had, and continues to have, on trust law in the United States is discussed in this session. Participants will become familiar with state sovereignty, and the efforts of the Uniform Law Commission to develop uniform-best practices with the creation of the Uniform Prudent Investor Act and Uniform Principal and Income Act. Each Act is defined and described. An overview of national-best practices is provided which includes topics such as trustee power to adjust, insubstantial allocations, mineral, water, oil, gas, and timber rights, and allocation principles.

MODULE SEVEN – Introduction to Securities

This session breaks down the various types of investments that are often used as tools to assist trust and fiduciary clients in meeting their financial goals. In addition to the most common types of publicly traded securities, and the difference between common and preferred, mutual funds (open and close end funds), options, futures, restricted securities and an overview derivative types is discussed. In addition, an overview of Rule 144 and affiliate transactions is provided.

MODULE EIGHT – Key Concepts of Risk and Risk Management: August 21st, 2024

Beginning with a review of the types of services, customers and capacities in the trust and fiduciary space, participants will step beyond the complexity and integrity of investments and begin to focus on oversight and control protocols. In this session, we will look at segregation of duties, effectiveness of controls, escalation and issue tracking to resolution. Participants will gain an overview and understanding of key risk concepts including operational risk, reputational risk, strategic risk, compliance risk and credit risk.

MODULE NINE – Key Concepts of Valuation: October 15th, 2024

Asset valuation is the process of assessing the value of a company, real property or any other item of worth. However, valuation of the fair market value of Trust assets can be difficult and complex. In this session, the valuation process and price feeds for publicly traded securities will be discussed. In addition, industry best practices related to stale-dated, not priced, hard-to-value and worthless securities are reviewed. The demands of the pricing of closely held assets and the valuation of mineral, oil, gas and timber assets are also discussed.

MODULE TEN – Audit, Control and Monitoring: November 12th, 2024

This session will discuss the process of evaluating and monitoring governance, risk management and internal controls. The delineation of Board responsibilities, that of Internal Audit, and internal controls, and self-assessments will be provided. The six principles of Auditing will be reviewed: Integrity, Fair Presentation, Due Care, Confidentiality, Independence and Evidence.

Meet your presenter:

Michael Daly, Director of Risk Management and Operations at Pohl Consulting and Training knows firsthand the importance of education as an essential guide to success. With over 25 years’ experience in trading, operations management, product development and risk management, he’s watched regulations and technology evolve and support fiduciary businesses. Mike provides high energy storytelling to simplify complex regulations, and both history and logic to define and clarify fiduciary fundamentals. He’s been a trainer and national conference speaker for the ABA and for over a decade served as Chair of the ICB/ABA Certification of Securities Operations Professionals (CSOP). For eight years he served on the Board of Directors for the Fiduciary and Investment Risk Management Association (FIRMA) and has authored numerous industry articles. His certifications include Securities Operations Professional (CSOP), Fiduciary and Investment Risk Specialist (CFIRS), Corporate Trust Specialist (CTTS), and Project Management Risk Management Professional (PMIRMP). He holds an MBA in International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University.