For attorneys
A trustee organized to administer what you actually draft.
Estate-planning, trust and estate, and tax attorneys routinely design directed structures that no corporate trustee will accept. Opes is being organized to be the institution that does.
Opes is in formation. Nothing on this page is legal advice or an offer of fiduciary services.
How we work with counsel
Clear roles. No competition for the legal relationship.
We are not a law firm
Opes does not and will not provide legal advice or drafting. The family's counsel remains counsel. We administer the instrument you write.
Acceptance before drafting
Our intent is to give a clear preliminary read on administrability before a client is billed for a structure that may not be accepted.
Drafting-stage collaboration
We expect to make sample directed-trust provisions, appointment mechanics, and administrative requirements available to drafting counsel.
Directed provisions honored
Investment directors, distribution directors, trust protectors, and special holdings directors are the architecture we are built to administer.
Situs and continuity
Nevada's statutory framework is the intended foundation. Institutional continuity is intended to survive individual trustees and firm transitions.
A permanent record
Instruments, amendments, appointments, consents, and determinations are intended to be retained as a durable, retrievable fiduciary record.
Drafting considerations
Provisions we expect to discuss at the drafting stage.
These are areas of coordination, not model language. Drafting decisions remain entirely with counsel.
Administrative trustee appointment
Naming Opes and defining administrative duties
Investment direction
Investment director or advisor appointment and standard of liability
Distribution authority
Distribution director or committee, standards, and succession
Trust protector powers
Removal, replacement, situs change, and amendment authority
Special holdings provisions
Closely held business and concentrated position retention
Indemnification and exoneration
Allocation of liability among directed parties
Test us before you rely on us
Send an anonymized representative case and see how we would think about it.
Describe the structure without naming the family. We will respond with preliminary, non-binding observations about how the matter might be administered under our proposed model, and where we would expect friction.
Opes is a proposed Nevada-chartered retail trust company in organization. It does not practice law, does not provide legal or tax advice, and cannot presently accept an appointment as trustee. Preliminary observations on a representative case do not constitute acceptance, advice, or a commitment to serve.