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Trustee Empowerment & Protection
Founded by Mark J. Harder and headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Trustee Empowerment & Protection operates at the intersection of trust administration and...
Trustee Empowerment & Protection
Founded by Mark J. Harder and headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Trustee Empowerment & Protection operates at the intersection of trust administration and risk management. The firm was created to serve professional and lay trustees who find themselves named in irrevocable trust structures — a role that carries significant personal liability under the Uniform Trust Code and state fiduciary law. Harder, a veteran of the trust industry, designed the firm's services around the practical problems trustees face: the cost of errors-and-omissions coverage, the complexity of compliance documentation, and the absence of accessible training on fiduciary duties. Trustee Empowerment & Protection delivers a three-part offering. Its fiduciary liability insurance program places coverage for trustees who might otherwise be uninsurable as individuals, using a group-purchasing model to bring down premiums. The firm also provides administrative outsourcing — handling trust accountings, beneficiary communications, and regulatory filings that trustees are personally responsible for. Its education arm runs continuing-education programs on topics such as discretionary distribution standards, prudent-investor rule compliance, and trust-modification procedures under decanting statutes. The firm does not manage assets directly but acts as an infrastructure layer beneath the directed-trust model, where an investment advisor and a distribution advisor operate alongside a trustee whose role has been hollowed out to administrative oversight. Harder's firm has not publicly disclosed assets under administration or total insured trustee count. The Troy office serves a national client base, with concentration in states that have mature directed-trust statutes — particularly South Dakota, Delaware, Nevada, and Tennessee. In July 2023, the firm launched a digital platform that allows trustees to access policy documents, file incident reports, and complete required compliance training through a single portal (per the firm's official communications). The platform reflects a broader push to make trustee liability management as routine as any other professional-lines insurance product. What distinguishes Trustee Empowerment & Protection is its focus on the individual trustee rather than the trust-company entity. Corporate trustees carry their own coverage and compliance infrastructure; individual trustees — often family members named for tax or control reasons — typically do not. The firm has built its model around that asymmetry, bundling insurance, education, and back-office functions into a package that makes it structurally feasible for a family to use an individual fiduciary without exposing that person to uncapped personal risk. There is no obvious direct competitor operating at this same narrow intersection.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Troy
Corporate office
Troy, MI, United States
Principals
Mark J. Harder
Founder and CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What specific problem does Trustee Empowerment & Protection solve for trustees?
When a family names an individual — rather than a corporate trust company — as trustee of an irrevocable trust, that person assumes personal liability for breach of fiduciary duty, including responsibility for investment oversight, tax filings, and beneficiary communications. Standard professional-liability policies often exclude trustee liability. Trustee Empowerment & Protection fills that gap by providing purpose-built fiduciary liability insurance, outsourcing the administrative tasks that create the most common breach claims, and offering continuing education so trustees can document they met their duty of care.
Does the firm manage trust assets or make investment decisions?
No. Trustee Empowerment & Protection does not manage investment portfolios, select money managers, or direct trust distributions. Its role is administrative and insurance-focused — it handles the compliance, recordkeeping, and risk-transfer functions that sit beneath the investment layer. In a directed trust, the trustee's role is often reduced to an administrative one, and the firm's services align with that stripped-down fiduciary function.
Who is the typical client — professional fiduciaries or family-member trustees?
Both. The firm serves professional trustees who operate independently (not through a trust-company employer) as well as family members named as trustees — children, siblings, or trusted advisors of the settlor. Family-member trustees are often less aware of their personal exposure, and the firm's bundled model is structured to bring them into compliance quickly.
How does the firm's fiduciary liability insurance differ from standard E&O coverage?
Standard errors-and-omissions policies commonly exclude fiduciary liability, or they cap it at levels insufficient for trust-level exposure. Trustee Empowerment & Protection uses a group purchasing arrangement to access markets that specifically underwrite trustee risk, including defense costs for beneficiary lawsuits, coverage for accounting errors, and protection against claims of imprudent investment oversight — the exact categories that individual trustees face under the Uniform Prudent Investor Act and state trust codes.
In which jurisdictions does the firm do most of its work?
The firm is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, but its client base concentrates in states with well-developed directed-trust statutes — South Dakota, Delaware, Nevada, and Tennessee. These jurisdictions permit the separation of investment and distribution functions from the administrative trustee role, creating the precise division of labor that Trustee Empowerment & Protection's insurance and outsourcing model supports.
Is Trustee Empowerment & Protection a single-family office or does it serve multiple families?
It is neither. It is a specialized services firm that serves individual trustees, who may themselves be associated with single-family offices, multi-family offices, or no formal family-office structure at all. The firm is vendor to the trustee; it does not manage family wealth or provide consolidated family-office services.
What licensing or credentials do the firm's professionals hold?
Founder Mark J. Harder is a recognized figure in the trust industry with credentials that include the Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA) designation. The firm's education programs rely on trust-law attorneys and compliance specialists, but specific staff counts and credential breakdowns are not publicly disclosed.
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