A corporate trustee does not get sick, move away, take sides at Thanksgiving or forget to file the return. That is most of the argument for one, and it is the argument that holds up over thirty years.
| Role | What we do | When people choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Trustee of a revocable living trust | Hold and invest the assets, make distributions under the trust terms, keep the records, file the returns, and take over completely on the grantor’s incapacity or death without a court proceeding. | Where continuity matters more than control, or where there is no family member who should be asked to do this. |
| Successor trustee | Step in when the individual trustee dies, resigns or can no longer serve. | Named in most instruments we see, and the role we are most often called on to accept years after the document was signed. |
| Co-trustee | Serve alongside a family member. We handle custody, accounting, tax and administration; the individual co-trustee brings the knowledge of the family that no institution has. | The common compromise, and usually a good one. |
| Trustee of an irrevocable trust | Everything above, plus the discipline an irrevocable trust requires: distribution decisions made under the standard in the document, notices to beneficiaries, and Crummey withdrawal rights administered on time rather than reconstructed later. | Life insurance trusts, gifting trusts, trusts created under a will. |
| Agent for an individual trustee | Do the work under the trustee’s direction without taking the office. The trustee stays the trustee and keeps every discretionary decision. | The child who was named trustee, lives out of state and has a job. |
| Special needs trust trustee | Administer distributions so that public benefit eligibility is preserved, which means understanding what a distribution for food or shelter does to a benefit calculation before making one. | First party and third party special needs trusts. We do not accept a first party trust below $250,000 because the administration does not scale down. |
| Charitable trusts and foundations | Charitable remainder and lead trusts, and administration for private foundations including the annual distribution requirement and the excise tax return. | Where a gift and an income stream have to coexist. |
| Custodian and escrow agent | Hold assets, receive and disburse under an agreement, without discretion. | Transactions, litigation settlements, indemnity holdbacks. |
Effective January 1, 2026. Asset-based fees are calculated on the market value of the account on the last business day of the quarter and are charged quarterly in arrears, one quarter of the annual rate each quarter. Tiers are cumulative, so a $6,000,000 account pays 1.10% on the first $2,000,000, 0.85% on the next $3,000,000 and 0.60% on the remainder. Where the governing instrument sets a fee, the instrument governs and this schedule does not apply. Fees are chargeable against principal or income as the instrument and state law allow.
| Service | Fee |
|---|---|
| Personal trust and agency accounts, annual fee on market value | |
| First $2,000,000 | 1.10% |
| Next $3,000,000 | 0.85% |
| Next $5,000,000 | 0.60% |
| Above $10,000,000 | 0.45% |
| Minimum annual fee, per accountCharged on any account whose asset-based fee computes below the minimum. Not applied to an account opened before January 1, 2011, and not applied to a minor’s account funded by a client we already serve until the beneficiary reaches 25. | $4,500.00 |
| Custody only, no investment authority$600.00 minimum annual fee. | 0.20% |
| Directed trust where investment authority is held by another party$3,500.00 minimum. We remain responsible for administration, distributions and accounting, and we are not responsible for investment performance we do not direct, though we are still required to tell you when we think a direction is a mistake. | 0.55% |
| Special assets, in addition to the fee above | |
| Closely held business interest, per entity per yearHigher where we hold a controlling interest or serve on the board of the entity, which we do only where the instrument requires it. | $2,500.00 |
| Real property, per property per year$1,200.00 minimum. Unimproved land with no income is $750.00 per parcel. This covers management, not capital improvement oversight, which is billed at cost. | 5.00% of gross rents |
| Mineral, oil and gas interest, per interest per year | $350.00 |
| Note or mortgage receivable serviced, per note per year | $450.00 |
| Life insurance policy held in trust, per policy per yearIncludes the annual policy review an irrevocable life insurance trust requires and that a great many trustees do not perform. | $500.00 |
| Tangible personal property, firearms, collectionsDepends entirely on what it is, where it is and whether it must be appraised, stored or sold. We will not quote this in a schedule. | Quoted |
| Transactions and events | |
| Account acceptance and funding review, one timeWaived where the account funds from an estate we settled. | $1,500.00 |
| Termination or distribution of a trust$2,500.00 minimum, $25,000.00 maximum. Not charged on a distribution to a successor trustee that is a Calder account. | 1.00% of principal distributed |
| Fiduciary income tax return, Form 1041Plus $175.00 per additional state return and per grantor letter beyond the first three. | $650.00 |
| Court accounting, where requiredChancery and probate courts in our markets require an accounting on different cycles, and one county still requires paper. | $750.00 |
| Principal and income allocation for an unusual receipt | $300.00 |
| Wire transfer from a fiduciary account | $30.00 |
| Retirement accounts | |
| IRA or Roth IRA custody, annualWaived where the account is part of a relationship of $500,000 or more. | $75.00 |
| IRA termination or transfer to another custodian | $125.00 |
| Trusteed IRA, annual | $1,200.00 |
| Employer plan directed trustee, annualPlus $12.00 per participant per year above 50 participants. | $3,500.00 |
This schedule may be amended on 60 days notice to the account. Notice goes to the current beneficiaries entitled to receive an accounting, which is not always the same list as the people who receive the statement, and both lists are maintained by your administrative officer.
Your attorney drafts the instrument. We are named as Calder Bank & Trust, N.A., Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we ask to review the draft language before it is executed, at no charge, because the two provisions that cause trouble later are almost always fixable in the draft: a distribution standard that cannot be administered as written, and a fee provision that conflicts with our schedule in a way nobody notices for twenty years.
We are not obligated to accept an appointment and we do not accept every one. The reasons we decline are usually the same three: the assets are entirely an operating business we would have to run, the instrument requires an investment approach we cannot prudently follow, or the family is in active litigation and what they need is a court-appointed fiduciary rather than a bank.
To begin, call (423) 555-0198 and ask for a trust officer, or ask your relationship manager to arrange the introduction. First meetings happen at our Chattanooga office at 401 Market Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402, at the Cleveland, Dalton or Huntsville office, or at your attorney’s office, which is often the most efficient place for it.
Investment and insurance products and trust and fiduciary services are:
Not a deposit · Not FDIC insured · Not insured by any federal government agency · Not guaranteed by the bank or any bank affiliate · May lose value, including possible loss of the principal amount invested.
Wealth and Trust division. Fee schedule effective January 1, 2026. Page maintained by Trust Administration.