The time between your first contact with Community Trust and the point at which distributions can begin is markedly different for pooled trust accounts and individual SNTs.
Pooled Trust Accounts:
Accounts normally are created one business day after the signed trust agreement and the funds are received. Documentation issues, or normal exigencies that may affect the operations of our custodian, can occasionally delay opening. But 99% of our new accounts are posted the next day.
Individual SNTs:
Opening an individual trust takes longer than a pooled trust account, for two reasons. First, each individual SNT has its own trust instrument, which needs to be negotiated and agreed by both the beneficiary’s lawyer and Community Trust. Second, our custodian of funds is a large, stable financial institution, which has a one- to two-week process to accept an individual account. Some of this delay is caused, frankly, by federal banking laws. Funds are available for distribution when the account has been fully opened by our custodian, which is usually within two weeks after we receive the funds for deposit.
If there are debts that cannot wait for an account to open, we urge the beneficiary or responsible parties to pay the debt out of the funds before they are delivered to us for deposit into a new trust account.
Once a trust is established, whether in the pooled trust program or as an individual SNT, additions to the trust assets are completed within the one-day norm (discussed above, for pooled trusts).
