* This is a contributed article. The IBTimes news staff was not involved in the creation of this article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of IBTimes. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here are our T&C. For licensing please click here.

Bill Russell is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who has worked with several big-name financial professionals and trust departments like Second National Bancorporation where he was the chief financial officer for 8 years. He was forced to transition out of his position there during the financial crisis in the early 1990s.

After this unexpected change with his employer, Bill helped develop TCA TrustCorp America (TCA) until it was officially founded in 1996. Currently, Bill serves as Chairman of the Board, CEO, and owns 51% of the company.

Bill Russell
Bill Russell

TCA was built from nothing to its current $850 million in assets. TCA keeps its client-base under 1000, but this small pool helps them dedicate quality time to trust administration tasks for each client. They have a nationwide footprint and add a personal touch to trust administration compared to large banking institutions.

TCA TrustCorp America's average client demographic varies widely, but trusts are most commonly created because a parent knows they're not going to be around much longer and they're concerned about their kids' abilities to manage their own affairs.

Bill works with many parents who want to financially support their children or give them something once they're gone, but they also want important restrictions created to help prevent them from blowing through the inheritance they're given.

However, before independent trust companies like TCA TrustCorp America existed, the alternative for choosing trustees was through enormous banks with billions in assets under management. Employee turnover rates are extremely high with trust officers which makes it impossible for a personal relationship to exist between officers and clients in order to grow.

Without this personal relationship, trust administration quality becomes very poor since investment strategies and general services involving trusts are implemented using a cookie-cutter philosophy since they have so many clients to please.

Chairman, Bill Russell, describes how TCA TrustCorp America could compete against large banking institutions despite their size:

"TCA TrustCorp America became successful because we had very low turnover. We could understand the client's situation in detail. We could work with clients' specific needs whereas a bank couldn't. They wouldn't have the time nor the inclination to provide those extra services. For example, many people are concerned that their kids will get divorced and the assets will be divided. We help preserve assets for their children and keep them inside the same bloodline. So, we help with issues like these on a more personal level. TCA clients who were already getting trust services at banks and didn't like what they were experiencing, came to us."

Bill further describes that they moved clients from banks to TCA TrustCorp America by transferring their assets and allowing clients to pick their own investment advisor. Personal choice of advisor was essential for many of these clients because it offered a win-win situation for the investment advisor and TCA: TCA's employees would handle trust administration and the investment advisor would focus on their tasks, so both things would be adequately managed and bring profit to each group.

Many companies attempted to be trust administrations but failed because they were growing too fast or not growing enough. This line of work requires meticulous attention to detail, therefore, if a company grows too quickly without the correct infrastructure, mistakes will be made.

If growth is too slow, annual expenses will accumulate into debt and eventually, the company will go bankrupt. Even TCA TrustCorp America lost $1.5 million before signing on enough clients to break even.

Bill recalls memories of what tactics they would use for securing new clients:

"In 1997 when I would meet boards of directors of small banks for partnerships, nothing would come of it. The real wave of change happened once we switched to working with investment advisors' clients. This worked because advisors were really hungry to get business and we didn't need any marketing campaigns to obtain new clients. We went to investment conferences and pitched the idea to investment advisors and they became a marketing agent for us. That's still true today because 99% of the time a client is reaching out to us it's because their investment advisor told them to."

About Bill Russell

Bill Russell is CEO and Chairman at TCA TrustCorp America, which is a Washington DC based company that provides trust administration services. Bill is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has worked with many successful financial firms as well as with KPMG, Peat Marwick. He has interests in politics and economics.

Media Contact
Name: Bill Russell
Email: brussell@tcatrust.com