# Trustee Empowerment & Protection Trustee Empowerment & Protection is a Bank / Wealth / Trust based in Troy, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Bank / Wealth / Trust - **Headquarters:** Troy, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Troy, MI, United States - **Founded:** 2002 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** https://www.tepi.tech - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/tepi ## Regulatory record - **CRD number:** 108249 - **Registration status:** APPROVED - **Latest Form ADV filing:** 2026-04-09T05:00:00.000Z - **Reports private funds:** No - **Private funds reported:** 0 - **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/108249 ## About Trustee Empowerment & Protection was formed to serve as an independent directed trustee, a model where the trustee administers the trust but follows the investment direction of an external advisor named by the grantor or beneficiaries. This unbundling addresses a common friction in private wealth management — families who wish to keep their long-tenured financial advisor often face a conflict when that same institution also serves as corporate trustee. By accepting directed trusts, TEP removes that structural tension. The firm's deployment posture is absent from public disclosure; as a directed trustee it does not manage a proprietary investment portfolio. Instead its operational function is administrative — custody, recordkeeping, tax reporting, and discretionary distribution review. This is not a capital-allocating entity. The geographic focus remains Michigan-centric given the Troy headquarters, though directed trustee engagements can serve grantors and beneficiaries across multiple US states depending on jurisdictional registration and the situs of the individual trust instrument. Scale metrics including assets under administration, number of trusts, and team headcount are not publicly published. No adjacent investment vehicles, private foundations, or co-investment platforms are known to be affiliated with the firm. The absence of a discoverable website or LinkedIn presence places this entity among the quietest fiduciaries in the Altss universe — consistent with a practice that builds through professional referrals from estate-planning attorneys and wealth advisors rather than public marketing. A structural distinction worth noting: the rise of directed-trustee statutes across US states — Michigan included — has created a regulatory niche for firms that serve as the administrative trustee without exercising investment discretion. TEP occupies that exact statutory footprint, which shifts the fiduciary liability for investment performance back to the advisor while the trustee retains liability for the administrative prudence of the trust's operation, including proper accounting and distribution decisions. ## Questions ### How does TEP charge for its services? No public fee schedule exists for TEP. In the directed-trustee universe, typical fee structures include an annual trustee fee calculated as a percentage of the trust corpus — often with a minimum floor and tiered downward as assets grow — or a flat retainer for trusts with predictable administrative complexity. Directed trustees generally charge less than full-service corporate trustees because they bear no investment-management responsibility and the associated compliance overhead. ### What estate-planning situations make a directed trustee like TEP particularly relevant? Directed trustees are most commonly deployed when: (1) a family has a trusted financial advisor they do not want replaced by the corporate trustee's in-house advisors; (2) the trust holds complex assets like closely held business interests or real estate that are better managed by a named individual or entity; (3) the grantor wants to separate the control functions to avoid concentration of power; or (4) the trust is sitused in a state like Michigan where directed-trust statutes provide explicit statutory protection for the unbundled fiduciary roles. ## Related profiles - [Trusted Media Brands Retirement Plan](https://altss.com/profile/trusted-media-brands-retirement-plan) - [Trustees of Deerfield Academy](https://altss.com/profile/trustees-of-deerfield-academy) --- Last updated: 2026-08-10T19:36:47.593Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/trustee-empowerment-protection Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology