People writing wills for smaller estates often appoint a trustee to look after assets to benefit children, grandchildren and descendants who, for some reason such as illness or injury, cannot take care of themselves. Living wills get lots of attention, because lawyers and others advertise and offer seminars about them. Plain vanilla wills get far less attention. Both approaches to testamentary planning, however, usually involve a trustee sooner or later. Trusts involving welfare of family members frequently call for a high degree of involvement on the trustee's part.
Decisions come up about education and health care.
Larger banks, however, are going in that direction. Among larger local banks, Norwest still runs a trust department, but it hasn't announced its fate when Wells Fargo takes over. First Security, recently looking for a buyer, has a staff in Albuquerque reporting to the Salt Lake City home office. Nationsbank displayed little interest in local trust business. Bank of America, with several years in Albuquerque under its belt, didn't seem to go after trust business either.