ABOUT TRUST BENEFACTORS
What Are They?
Trust Benefactors are persons, parishes, or organizations which indirectly make use of the DIT by their having given assets to the TEP, as trustee, for it to hold and invest for the benefit of the Diocese or its member institutions. The TEP has been managing such trusts for over a century and a quarter and currently manages over 100. All of these trusts are invested identically, utilizing the Funds of the DIT and occasionally, when and if warranted, an additional cash equivalent.
Why Trusts?
Trusts serve the purpose of enabling individuals or other entities to place some kind of asset(s) in the hands of a trustee and to specify exactly how the income or proceeds derived from the asset(s) may be used and by whom (the beneficiary). One of the primary purposes for which the TEP was created was to enable donations by interested individuals to be held in trust so as 1) not to be diverted from their specific objects and 2) to be protected and managed by a corporate board created by and responsible to Diocesan Convention. The TEP is authorized to act as trustee and to provide professional investment management for individual trusts of any size, both large and modest.
What Kind of Trusts?
Trusts come in many shapes and sizes. Those administered by the TEP are called express trusts (as distinct from endowments) and include perpetual trusts. They are created either 1) through a trust agreement made by a donor (the benefactor) during the donor's life or 2) in the Will of the donor, if an individual, and in either case specify who or what is to benefit from the agreement (the beneficiary). Trusts that the TEP may receive must have as beneficiaries either the Diocese or individual parishes and other institutions existing or acting under the Diocesan Convention. Such trusts may be either unrestricted, i.e., for the general support of the beneficiary, or they may be restricted to a specific religious, educational, or charitable purpose of the specified beneficiary.
How To Become a Benefactor
As noted above, trusts come about through a Will or a trust agreement. Both customarily involve attorneys. For further information on how to initiate a trust benefaction with the TEP, please contact our Executive Director, who will put you in touch with our General Counsel for assistance in preparing the requisite documents or in having them prepared by your attorney.