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August 2026

How to Build a Financial Safety Net That Catches What Matters Most

A thoughtful trust and estate strategy helps protect what you’ve worked hard to achieve and provides greater clarity for the people you care about most.

Summary

  • National Financial Awareness Day is a yearly nudge to review your finances and take stock of your plans for the future.
  • More than half of Americans currently have no estate planning documents in place, and trusts remain one of the least-used tools despite their benefits.
  • A properly funded trust helps assets pass to beneficiaries more efficiently, maintains privacy, and provides structure for how and when funds are distributed.
  • Trusts carry their own exposures, including the risk of mismanagement or theft by the very trustee appointed to protect them.
  • We offer a suite of trust insurance solutions, including first-of-its-kind trustee crime coverage, to help close these gaps and keep family legacies intact.

A Day Dedicated to Your Dollars

Building wealth is just one part of a financial picture. Making sure it lands in the right hands—at the right time, without unnecessary delays or disputes—is another. A thoughtful trust and estate strategy helps protect what you’ve worked hard to achieve.

National Financial Awareness Day, August 14, is a reminder to make your personal finances a priority. Whether you review your finances once a year or more often, set aside time to review bank statements, revisit savings goals, and plan investments. While you’re at it, ask yourself: what happens to everything I’ve built when I’m no longer the one managing it?

For many people, that question doesn't have a clear answer. A will is the document most people think of first, but it's only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Trusts are another piece. They can easily be misunderstood or overlooked; however, when built and insured correctly, trusts could be one of the most important parts of a financial plan.

Many Families Skip the Paperwork

Planning for the future is something most Americans know they should do, and yet the majority haven't done it. According to the 2026 Trust & Will Estate Planning Report, 73% of Americans say estate planning is personally important, but the same report found that more than half of U.S. adults currently have none of the core estate planning documents it tracked—no will, no trust, no medical directive.

The gap between knowing and doing is not necessarily because people don’t care, but because estate planning may feel like a web of logistics, legalese, and life getting in the way. This is why National Financial Awareness Day exists: it's a nudge to move from "someday" to making it happen today.

What a Trust Actually Does

You’ve planned your entire life; now it’s time to plan how your legacy lives on. A trust is a roadmap that you design with guardrails to guide the “who, what, when, and how” of what you’ve worked hard to build. At its core, a trust lets you put someone you choose in charge of managing assets for someone you care about—with your instructions in writing. It’s a legal arrangement in which one party (the trustee) holds and manages assets on behalf of another (the beneficiary), according to the terms set by the person who created it (the grantor).

Depending on how it's structured, a trust may be able to:

  • Direct how and when assets are distributed—all at once, in stages, or over a lifetime
  • Provide for beneficiaries who may need extra support, such as minor children or a family member with a disability
  • Offer a degree of privacy that a will, which typically becomes part of the public probate record, does not
  • Help avoid or reduce the probate process

Perks with a Purpose

When a trust is built thoughtfully, there can be many benefits for a family, including:

Control, even when you're not at the wheel: Grantors can specify when disbursements are made, rather than handing over a lump sum all at once.

A plan that still works if life throws a curveball: A properly funded trust may allow a successor trustee to step in and manage affairs without court involvement

More privacy, less paperwork: Trust terms generally stay out of the public record, unlike probated wills.

Flexibility for far-flung assets: For families with real property in more than one state, a trust can help sidestep the need for probate proceedings in each one.

Evolving with You and for You

Creating a trust isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise because families change, businesses sell, people relocate, and the plan that made perfect sense five years ago can start to feel like it was written for a life you no longer have. Major life events warrant a review, including:

  • Marriage or divorce
  • The birth or adoption of children
  • Purchasing or selling a home
  • Starting or selling a business
  • Receiving an inheritance
  • Significant changes in financial assets

Guarding the Guardian

The very structure designed to protect a family's legacy could introduce its own risks. Trustees—whether a family member, a friend, or a professional—are often given significant access to money, investments, and property. A trustee may have the keys to the account, the authority to move money, and the ability to make decisions quickly, with little oversight. Most of the time, they use their authority as intended, but traditional crime insurance policies may not cover theft from an estate when the person stealing is a trustee, and mismanagement may be difficult to catch early, especially in large or complex family structures.

Trust, but Insure

Building a trust is a meaningful step toward protecting your family's future—but a trust is only as strong as the safeguards built around it. That's where we may be able to offer support. We offer a suite of trust insurance solutions designed to protect trust-held property, cover liability exposures, and support trustees in fulfilling their fiduciary duties with confidence. Many families assume, “If something goes wrong, insurance will handle it,” but in trust arrangements, coverage can be more complicated than people expect.

Our Trustee Crime Insurance Solution is built specifically to address theft committed by trustees, closing a gap that traditional crime policies typically leave open. Clients can access up to $10 million in coverage through an AM Best A++-rated insurer, giving families added assurance that their legacy is protected regardless of who's managing it.

Remember that protecting your legacy means helping ensure the people, properties, and possessions that matter most are positioned for the future you’ve worked hard to build. If you’ve built a trust—or you’re thinking about it—let us help you take a clear look at the protections around it. Schedule a personal risk management review so we can help you identify gaps, reduce surprises, and protect your legacy for generations to come.

Request an insurance review with an experienced Personal Risk Advisor to ensure you're adequately insured for whatever life may bring.

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