Trust & Estate Administration

Designed for Your Organization

Our Enterprise Solutions team works with you to build the right experience — whether that's a keynote address, a half-day workshop, a multi-session webinar series, or a fully integrated training program. Topics, format, session length, and depth of content are all customizable to align with your audience, your objectives, and your timeline.

Course Topics

Estate and Trust Administration
Gain a comprehensive understanding of estate and trust administration, including key steps, timelines, and considerations for fiduciaries. The session emphasizes best practices for managing assets, communicating with beneficiaries, and ensuring compliance with legal and tax obligations.

Defensive Trust Administration
Learn how to administer trusts with an eye toward minimizing liability and avoiding litigation. Topics include fiduciary duties, UTC provisions on reporting and beneficiary consent, non-judicial settlement agreements, notices of proposed action, exculpation clauses, and other strategies for risk management.

Trust & Estate Administration
The proper termination of a trust or estate is a critical yet often overlooked phase of fiduciary administration. This session examines termination events, fiduciary duties during wind-up, and the procedural steps required to conclude administration responsibly. Practical checklists and common pitfalls are addressed to help avoid post-termination disputes and liability.

UTC - Overview of Important Provisions
This session offers a clear and practical overview of key Uniform Trust Code (UTC) provisions that every trust professional should master. Topics include pet trusts and their legal implications, the Cy Pres doctrine for charitable trust modification, strategies for combining or dividing trusts, fiduciary delegation rules, qualified beneficiary rights, and representation in trust administration and dispute resolution.

What Do You DO When You Get the Call That Your Client Has Passed?
When estate planning is a standard part of the advice model, one can imagine that eventually those clients will pass away. What is the role of the advisor in helping the client's family through the complex world of transitioning from life to death and the transition of assets to heirs?

What Do You DO Anyway? - Role of a Trustee
Whether an individual family member or a professional corporate trustee, the roles and responsibilities are the same, and not everyone is aware of the extent, importance, and liability of the job.

Document Analysis - How to Read a Will or Trust
Reading and understanding the terms of a will or trust instrument is a vital part of the role of a fiduciary. From the synopsis of key provisions to the distribution language, from terminology to state law issues, we all need to be able to see the obvious and identify the nuances that are expressed in the primary estate plan documents that govern our administration of estates and trusts.

Who Should Enroll and Why

Trust Officers and Administrators will gain a practical understanding of estate planning structures, ownership considerations, and trustee selection principles. This course will help you administer trusts more effectively, anticipate potential issues, and ensure estate plans function as intended. By exploring real-world scenarios and decision-making frameworks, you’ll be better prepared to manage complex administration challenges and support beneficiaries with clarity and confidence.

Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers will deepen their understanding of how estate planning strategies align with broader wealth management goals. This knowledge will enable you to engage clients in more meaningful estate planning conversations, identify planning opportunities driven by tax law changes, and coordinate more effectively with attorneys and other professionals. The course provides actionable insights to help you deliver greater value and strengthen client relationships.

Paralegals and Legal Assistants will benefit from a clear, structured overview of estate planning fundamentals, including property ownership, default estate laws, and planning tools. This course will enhance your ability to support attorneys by improving document preparation, issue spotting, and client communication throughout the estate planning process.

Aspiring Trust and Wealth Professionals will find this course to be an excellent entry point into the field of estate planning. By building a strong foundation in essential concepts, strategies, and terminology, you will be better prepared for entry-level roles and future professional development in trust administration, financial planning, or estate-related services.

Course Instructors

Daniel A. Smith, CFP®, CWS®

As a dedicated professional, Daniel Smith believes that everyone deserves sound advice and exceptional service. With his extensive real-world experience, Daniel brings a spirited approach to his instruction, helping advisors put their knowledge into immediate, practical use to better serve their clients. His expertise lies in sales and relationship management skills, which he seamlessly integrates with the complexities of estate planning, estate taxation, charitable giving, and investment management. By doing so, Daniel empowers advisors to effectively guide wealthy clients and their families in achieving their goals.

Before joining Cannon, Daniel spent years as a client-facing advisor in the Wealth Management and Trust business. His 25 years of experience with Cannon have further enriched his knowledge, as he constantly interacts with top financial advisors and wealthy individuals across the globe, incorporating best practices into his teachings.

A sought-after speaker, Daniel frequently presents at financial services firms and conferences worldwide, covering topics such as sales, exceptional service, estate planning, taxation, and industry trends. His insights have been featured in numerous publications, including Trusts & Estates and Registered Rep magazines. As the leader of Cannon Trust School, the largest trust school in the country, Daniel continues to make a significant impact on the industry. His consulting work spans distance-based learning solutions, private family wealth consultation, and expert witness services.

Meagan MacBean, J.D.

Meagan MacBean is a dedicated professional who believes that exceptional service is rooted in a deep understanding of the complexities of estate and trust law. As the founder of The MacBean Law Firm, LLC, she brings extensive experience as both a practicing attorney and a former Trust Officer to her work. Meagan provides a spirited, real-world approach to her instruction, helping advisors translate technical knowledge into immediate, practical solutions for their clients. Her expertise seamlessly integrates the nuances of estate planning, asset protection, and planning for incapacity with the operational realities of trust and estate administration.

Before establishing her own firm, Meagan spent years advising high-net-worth clients on wealth transfer strategies and fiduciary responsibilities. Her professional background is further enriched by her academic contributions; she serves as a Lecturer at Mississippi State University, where she teaches Real Estate Law, International Business Law, and Entrepreneur Law. This dual perspective, balancing private practice with academic instruction, allows her to empower advisors to effectively guide wealthy families in achieving their long-term goals.

A highly credentialed expert, Meagan is an honors graduate of Cannon Financial Institute Trust School and holds a J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Her insights have been featured in publications such as SC Lawyer Magazine, and she is a recognized leader in the field, having been selected for the Mississippi Bar Association’s Leadership Forum and Portico Jackson Magazine’s "Portico 15". Through her work as a guest instructor and her specialized practice in fiduciary litigation and tax preparation, Meagan continues to make a significant impact on the industry.