Pendleton Square Trust Company, LLC has become the first independent public trust company chartered by the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions since a 2011 overhaul of state trust laws positioned Tennessee as one of the most progressive trust states in the country, said officials.
Betsy Blunt Brown will serve as president of Pendleton Square Trust Company and will be based in the firm’s Chattanooga office. Robin Satyshur, veteran advisor to high net worth families for more than two decades, is chief executive officer of Pendleton Square Trust and Family Office, which will initially have trust offices in Chattanooga and Nashville, adding a family office in the coming months, and maintaining presence in other parts of the state including Memphis. Steve Davis will be chief trust officer and Derek Church chief fiduciary officer. Memphis businessman and investor Brad Champlin has been appointed the trust company’s first board chairman.
Pendleton Square will offer trust administration services for personal and charitable trusts, estate administration, along with family education, risk management, governance, succession planning, wealth transfer, mentoring and comprehensive reporting.
“As an independent trust company, we are able to help individuals, families and legal entities navigate financial complexities without conflicts or perceived conflicts of interest that often present themselves when engaged in active investment management,” Ms. Satyshur said.
Tennessee’s trust climate was ranked third best in the U.S. in the Fourth Annual Oshins Dynasty Trust State Rankings published last month. The rankings, compiled by Nevada lawyer Steve Oshins, evaluate states and their trust laws based on asset protection, ability to accomplish trust intent and taxation, among other factors.
“Tennessee trust laws are among the most progressive in the country,” Ms. Brown said, “and we think there is an opportunity to turn that into a real economic advantage to the state and its citizens. We believe we are in a unique position to establish Tennessee as an industry leader, attracting generational trust administration from other parts of the country.”
Ms. Brown was most recently vice president and regional manager at Cumberland Trust, where she helped establish Cumberland Trust’s Chattanooga and Atlanta offices. Prior to that, she was vice president at JPMorgan Private Bank. A partner in The JumpFund, an angel fund investing in female-led businesses in the Southeast, she spent a decade with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey as a director of Fixed Income Origination within the bank’s Debt Capital Markets group. She is active in a number of community endeavors and serves as a trustee of Girls Preparatory School and a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga.
Ms. Satyshur began her career at EDS in Dallas where she held various financial and management positions and subsequently assumed the role as chief manager and treasurer of a single-family office. In 2005, she became treasurer and chief operating officer of The Family Office, LLC, a single-family office serving the founding family of Dollar General Corp. She helped charter Tennessee’s first private trust company in 2010 and currently serves as an independent director for a Tennessee-chartered family private trust company.
Mr. Davis was most recently president of The Family Private Trust Company, Tennessee’s first private trust company. He began his career in 1973 at First American National Bank in Nashville where he worked in the corporate legal department and was executive vice president of commercial real estate. From 1994 until 2005, he managed trust real estate and non-traded assets as group vice president, wealth and investment for SunTrust in Nashville. He joined Truxton Trust shortly after it was founded in 2004 as senior wealth management officer, trusts and estates.
Mr. Church joins Pendleton Square from Synovus Trust Company, N.A., headquartered in Columbus, Ga., where he served as senior compliance officer ensuring the bank complied with federal banking regulations as well as state statutes where Synovus maintained operations.
Prior to Synovus, he was trust program administrator for the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions where he oversaw the sate’s regulation of trust companies and bank trust departments and drafted regulations and policies impacting trust institutions doing business in Tennessee.
Pendleton Square’s business model is designed to work with families and their respective financial teams that often include an investment advisor, attorney, accountant, private banker, life insurance advisor and others who have specialized expertise and an existing relationship with the family.
“The company will not offer financial and investment products that compete with registered investment advisors, brokerage firms or banks,” Ms. Brown said.