Planning for your family's future well-being often means making long-range financial decisions today. Our professional experts can guide you and your family through estate planning issues and offer strategies that can help secure your family's financial future for years to come. Many of our clients are also interested in building a legacy through philanthropy and we offer a number of ways to accomplish that goal with tax advantages.*
As part of Tompkins Financial, we're pleased to offer our clients the best in trust and estate services through Tompkins Investment Services, a division of Tompkins Trust Company. Tompkins has been providing trust, estate, and investment management services for more than a century. Trust assets are managed using our disciplined, objective investment management process. We go to great lengths to maintain the highest standards of fiduciary practices.
Whether you are looking for a trustee, successor trustee, or executor, we are delighted to listen and collaborate 
with you and your other advisors on an appropriate solution. Our collective years of experience and professional training allow us to think creatively and arrive at practical approaches that will bring you peace of mind. Here are some of the more typical ways we work with clients:
TRUSTS
One estate planning strategy that is commonly used is the creation of a trust. Trusts can be beneficial for minimizing estate taxes, controlling when, how, and to whom assets are distributed, reducing the unexpected costs of probate and keeping your affairs private. Trusts are also used for clients who want to leave a legacy through philanthropy, while realizing tax benefits*, and providing for loved ones.
Corporate Trustee Perhaps the single most important factor in the ultimate success of a trust-based estate plan is the choice of trustee for its supervision. A trustee's responsibilities are wide-ranging. By law, and subiect to the specific terms of the trust document, the trustee may have remarkable power over the fate of your family fortune. Trust creators need to have confidence that such power will be exercised wisely. There are many important benefits to choosing:
Tompkins as your corporate trustee:
We treat estate and trust administration as a full-time job
We have facilities, systems and trained professionals for asset management
Trust funds in our care are protected by our adherence to the highest fiduciary standards, and are subject to our own internal audits as well as regulatory oversight by state and federal officials
We have an unlimited life, while an individual may die, become incompetent or just disappear
We bring long experience and judgment to the job of investment management.
Our investment management process is disciplined, objective and adheres to the highest standards of fiduciary practices.
WILLS
Everyone who owns property needs a will. Unfortunately, many individuals leave an unrecognized weak point in their wills: spouses, relatives or business associates are designated to fill what is presumably the mostly "honorary" post of executor. In reality, estate settlement involves a demanding, complex set of tasks and the results, for better or worse, depend upon the experience, skills and judgment of those you designate to handle the job.
Corporate Executor By naming us as your corporate executor in your will, we can handle all aspects of the estate settlement process. We will collect and safeguard your assets, pay proper debts, contest improper claims, file estate and income tax returns. We will also carry out the wishes you designate in your will as to the ultimate distribution of assets to your beneficiaries.
Tompkins Investment Services has been developing meaningful relationships with our clients and their families for more than a century. We're honored to be regarded as their trusted advisor.
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Investments are not a deposit or other obligation of, or guaranteed by, the bank, are not FDIC insured, not insured by any Federal government agency, and are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of principal.
*Consult your tax advisor