Fiduciary Trust Canada

What two questions would you expect someone to ask when considering Fiduciary Trust Canada?

1) How will Fiduciary Trust Canada, acting as a professional executor and trustee, make a difference to my family?

I think families are searching for an estate solution that incorporates the administrative and technical advantages of professional executor and trustee services while ensuring their beneficiaries are not faced with an impersonal institution. There's a very human side to our business and we focus on this aspect in a professional manner. Our combined expertise and experience is how we make a real difference to families. Our approach reflects Fiduciary Trust Canada's long-standing values: put clients first, build relationships, achieve quality results, and work with integrity.

2) What experience do you have in administering trusts and estates?

As our biographies illustrate, we've focused our careers in this area. With the benefit of many years of experience, we've cultivated a deep understanding of the importance of teamwork and even-handedness in working with families and advisors. We understand complicated family relationships and how to navigate numerous issues as they arise. Families can count on us to acknowledge their concerns, but still provide leadership and make decisions.

What characteristics distinguish Fiduciary Trust Canada?

Focusing on our wealth transfer services, all of our trusts and estates are personally administered by very senior trust professionals. Our fees are always transparent and fair. We are well-recognized for our abilities and experience in working with other advisors and their clients, as reflected by the growing and significant portion of work referred to us by investment advisors, lawyers and accountants.

What experience, industry expert, author or book has influenced your work with clients?

Family Wealth: Keeping it in the Family by James E. Hughes Jr. I find this book meaningful because of its broader definition of family wealth, which takes into account the individuals that comprise the family and the value they add by way of their human and intellectual capital. It's a much richer definition than one that only measures family wealth by its financial assets. Hughes' thoughtful approach offers families and advisors new insights and strategies to build and preserve a multi-generational legacy.

What trend has caught your attention as it relates to your work at Fiduciary Trust Canada?

The focus now is on more inclusive consultation with adult children and other immediate family members, where appropriate, while the estate plan is being developed. This input better aligns the estate distribution to the needs and preferences of the beneficiaries resulting in a less stressful and more harmonious transition of wealth to the next generation.

What traits do you respect most in people?

Honesty and integrity.

Given ample time, what interests would you pursue?

I would use my professional experience to broaden my contribution in support of two charitable endowment funds that reflect my interests in education and health care.

Elaine Wilson joined Fiduciary Trust Canada in March 2006, having spent 10 years in progressively senior roles in Will and Estate Planning Services with two major trust companies. Ms. Wilson's experience also includes five years practising estate and family law with a prominent national law firm. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, Queen's University (1989) and the Faculty of Medicine (Health Administration), University of Toronto (1987), and is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.