Sourcing a Trustee
How do I prepare for a trustee to step into or transition out of the trustee role?
Sourcing a Trustee (formerly Trustee Basics Module 3) helps learners think through what it takes to set a trustee up for success at key transition points. It focuses on how to define the trustee role, evaluate fit, clarify expectations, and support a thoughtful handoff when a trustee is joining or leaving. Learners will consider the practical and relational elements of trustee transitions, including job descriptions, interview preparation, compensation expectations, onboarding practices, stakeholder communication, and continuity between outgoing and incoming trustees.
What You’ll Be Able to Do on the Other Side
- Draft a trustee job description that reflects the trust’s purpose, complexity, stakeholder needs, and desired trustee characteristics.
- Prepare interview questions that help evaluate whether a trustee candidate has the experience, judgment, temperament, and availability the role requires.
- Compare individual and corporate trustee candidates using consistent criteria tied to the needs of the trust and beneficiaries.
- Clarify trustee compensation expectations by identifying the responsibilities, complexity factors, and communication practices.
- Use onboarding and offboarding best practices to help a trustee enter or exit the role with clearer expectations, documentation, relationships, and continuity.
The Experience
In this module, participants work through the trustee transition process from defining the role and preparing for candidate conversations to supporting a trustee’s entry into or exit from the role. The experience uses practical examples, interview categories, compensation considerations, onboarding checklists, and transition prompts to help learners think through what should be clarified before, during, and after a trustee change.
Participants will be invited to consider trustee transitions from multiple perspectives, including the trust creator, beneficiary, incoming trustee, outgoing trustee, and advisor. Rather than treating onboarding and offboarding as administrative steps, the module emphasizes preparation, communication, role clarity, and continuity to ensure trustee transitions are handled with greater confidence and less ambiguity.
Program Outline
Trustee Basics
Trustee Basics is a continuation of the learning established in Beneficiary Fundamentals and puts the learner in the shoes of a trustee. The course starts by establishing the main parties to a trust and defines the role of a trustee. The subsequent modules provide an overview of the responsibilities and duties of a trustee and reviews the beneficiary’s duties in the trust relationship. This course includes worksheets and resources that help an individual work through if they are ready to take on the responsibility and duty of becoming a trustee. Additionally, Trustee Basics covers institutional trustees, the purpose of a private trust company, and how to evaluate trustee candidates and monitor their performance over time.
Pricing
- Access your courses anytime, anywhere, with a computer, tablet or smartphone
- Videos, quizzes and interactive content designed for a proven learning experience
- Real-Life Examples & Practical Tools Explore relatable case studies, media moments, and conversation starters that help you apply what you’re learning to your own relationship.
- This course is designed to take 1-3 weeks. Most learners move through the material at a gentle pace, allowing time for reflection, journaling, and meaningful conversations. If you put in more hours per week, you will finish sooner.
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