The Well-Prepared Family: Letter of Wishes - Know Your Options - Investment and Insurance Disclosures

Sep 15, 2026

A letter of wishes guide explains how, alongside a trust agreement, an irrevocable trust can use a letter to communicate the creator’s intentions without legally binding directions. It outlines how such letters support trustees’ discretion, can be shared with beneficiaries or kept for the trustee, and describes best practices and common scenarios. The guide also addresses how the flexibility and limits of trust agreements shape what a letter can and cannot change, including practical examples and key considerations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Know your options

A growing trend

Before you begin

Trust officers’ perspective

Five best practices

Thinking through the issues

Bottom line

Important information

The Well-Prepared—Family Is a ‘letter of wishes’ right for your trust? As a complement to your trust agreement, this letter can help ensure that your intentions are understood INVESTMENT AND INSURANCE PRODUCTS: • NOT A DEPOSIT • NOT FDIC INSURED • NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY • NO BANK GUARANTEE • MAY LOSE VALUE TABLE OF CONTENTS 03 Know your options | 04
A growing trend | | --- | | 05
Before you begin | | 06
Trust officers’perspective | | 07
Five best practices | | 09
Thinking through the issues | | 12
Bottom line | | 13
Important information | Help ensure that your intentions are understood 2 THE WELL-PREPARED FAMILY: LETTER OF WISHES Know your options If you place assets into a long-term, irrevocable trust, you may give your trustee broad discretion over distributions. That way, as facts and circumstances evolve—beneficiaries’ lives change, and assets ebband flow—the trustee will be able to exercise judgment about releasing funds. A letter of wishes can help communicate your views. This letter, sometimes called a “statement of intent” or “family values statement,” travels with your trust agreement for as long as the trust exists, providing general guidance rather than specific, legally binding direction. Your letter of wishes can be shared with your beneficiaries to give them insights into your thinking. Or you can arrange foryour letter to be seen by the trustee only. As a corporate trustee with a global presence, we have handleda great many letters of wishes over the years. Here, we share some additional perspective, five best practices that we’ve identified, and a few scenarios that may help you think through the issues. CREATING A FAMILY TRADITION A matriarch used a letter of wishes to convey a philosophy of “take only what you need and pass the rest on.” A family asked one of our trust officers to participate in their family meeting and explain to their youngest members: • The mechanics of their family’s dynasty trust • The philosophy of the letter of wishes for this trust The family’s matriarch, long deceased, had written the letter of wishes 50 years earlier. And the message she left for her descendants, our trust officer says, is “elegant.” She asked the trust’s current beneficiaries to view themselves as stewards of the family fortune. They should draw on the funds to help them with their life’s basic building blocks, the letter said. But they also should feel responsible for conserving the trust assets for future generations. Use trust funds, she wrote, only to finance your education, your first home and your first business. After that, she asked them to rely on their own funds. However, neither the trust she created nor her letter prohibits the trustee from going beyond the basics, if need be. “This letter of wishes established a tone—setting expectations—and everybody rose to the occasion,” the trust officer says. “The family took this philosophy extremely seriously. The letter of wishes helped create a strong family tradition.” 2 A growing trend Letters of wishes have long been common in some countries, but more recently have gained popularity in the United States. Several factors may be driving this trend: • Concern about outdated instructions. Many people don’t want to include directions that may no longer apply, and want to provide explanations of their instructions. • Proliferation of multigenerational or perpetual trusts. Trust creators often appoint a close friend or relative asthe initial trustee, thinking that person understands their values. But successor trustees are less likely to have that insight, and this lack of familiarity may increase over time. Additionally, the preservation of real wealth is often the goal of a multigenerational trust, where trustees may benefit from guidance on whether and to what extent sustainable distribution levels should be maintained. • Desire for the expertise of a c

FAQs

What is a letter of wishes and what role does it play with a trust agreement?

A letter of wishes communicates the creator’s views alongside the trust agreement. It provides general guidance to the trustee rather than specific legally binding instructions.

Can the letter of wishes be shared with beneficiaries or restricted to the trustee?

Yes. The letter can be shared with beneficiaries to explain the family’s thinking, or arranged to be seen by the trustee only.

What key limitations should be understood before writing a letter of wishes?

Only the trust agreement legally binds the trustee, and in many cases the trust agreement cannot be changed after signing except by court order. In contrast, the letter of wishes can typically be updated or discarded as circumstances change.

Sep 15, 2026

Uploaded by Chloe Bennett