Our client: Trust New Hampshire First, LLC
On June 20, 2006, Governor Lynch signed into law the “Trust Modernization and Competitiveness Act of 2006.” According to the act, the purpose of the TMCA is “to establish New Hampshire as the best and most attractive legal environment in the nation for trusts and trust services.”
The TMCA makes significant changes to New Hampshire’s statutes in two areas: (1) those governing trust companies, which are regulated by the Bank Department; and (2) those governing the establishment and administration of trusts.
[See the law, 2006 N.H. Laws, Chapter 320, SB 394.]
For TMCA’s legislative sponsors (Senators Clegg, D’Allesandro, Green and O’Dell and Representatives O’Niel, Francoeur, Hunt and Moran), this bill is about jobs for New Hampshire citizens. The hope is that by offering the best legal “infrastructure” for trusts and trust services, New Hampshire can attract trust companies and other firms who sell trust administration and wealth management services, and these firms will offer good jobs to our citizens.
This complex legislation won bipartisan support, after being thoroughly examined throughout the 2006 legislative session by a wide variety of interests and regulators. The Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Commerce Committee approved the bill by unanimous votes (5-0 and 20-0, respectively), and the full legislative bodies each resoundingly followed committee recommendations to approve the bill.
Rath | Young was proud to represent Trust New Hampshire First, LLC, a coalition of supporters who initiated, developed, drafted and lobbied for enactment of the TMCA. TMCA’s supporters believe that TMCA is an economic development bill that seeks to attract new financial service jobs to New Hampshire in connection with the developing national fiduciary services market.
Experts have projected that over the next 50 years, families will transfer an estimated $20 to $40 trillion in wealth using trusts. These families will seek to establish their trusts in states that provide the most freedom and flexibility to make sure that their private property is well managed to achieve their goals for their families and others, such as charities.
RKG Associates, a national research firm located in Durham, NH commissioned by Trust NH First, concluded that enactment of SB 394 would position New Hampshire to experience a direct financial sector job growth of as much as 3,900 people over the next four years, which would result in almost $4 million of tax revenue to the State.
[See the RKG Study by clicking on the link below.]
The Wall Street Journal reported on TMCA’s enactment just two days after the Governor signed the bill, stating that the “latest entrant in the trust wars is New Hampshire, whose governor signed into law this week a bill that seeks to surpass most other states in innovative trust features.” Silverman, “States Court Family-Trust Business,” Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2006, p. D1.
New Hampshire’s media has also shown interest in this legislation. On June 8, 2006, New Hampshire Public Radio’s Laura Knoy investigated the bill with her interview of Bank Commissioner Peter Hildreth, trust lawyer Susan Leahy, and Rath | Young tax lawyer Bill Ardinger.
[Listen to the program: New Hampshire Public Radio, The Exchange, reported by Laura Knoy, “In New Hampshire We Trust?,” June 8, 2006.]
Bill Ardinger, has co-authored with Attorney Michelle Arruda an article in the New Hampshire Bar Journal, “The Policy and Provisions of the Trust Modernization and Competitiveness Act of 2006.” Ardinger and Arruda’s article examines this ground-breaking legislative initiative which makes significant changes to New Hampshire’s statutes in two areas: (1) those governing trust companies, which are regulated by the Banking Department; and (2) those governing the establishment and administration of trusts.
[See the article by clicking on the link below.]
For further information concerning this important legislation, please contact Bill Ardinger.
