As estate planning attorneys, we spend a great deal of time crafting trust documents — structuring provisions, anticipating contingencies and tailoring language to our clients’ wishes.

What we don’t always get to see is how those documents perform once they leave our hands and land on the desk of a trust officer charged with carrying them out.

I attended the Trust Advisors Forum for the first time this February, and it immediately shifted how I think about certain aspects of my drafting practice. The conference brought together corporate trust professionals and the attorneys who work alongside them, creating a rare opportunity to hear directly from the people who interpret, administer and navigate the documents we create every day.

I connected with numerous Trust professionals at this meeting, but two conversations stood out in particular:

I had the chance to connect one-on-one with the trust team at Pinnacle Financial Partners and learn how their administration approach centers on beneficiaries and the unique challenges each family presents. It was a good reminder that the best trust documents aren’t just technically sound — they’re practically workable for the people responsible for executing them.

I also had the opportunity to learn more about Members Trust Company and their credit union-owned corporate trust model. T.L. Brown, Tamara Kidd and their team do impressive work in this space, and I came away with a much richer understanding of how that structure serves clients.

For any attorney practicing in the trust arena in North Carolina, I’d strongly encourage attending the Trust Advisors Forum. The connections to professionals in the corporate trust space are valuable on their own — but the practical drafting insights you bring home are what make the investment truly worthwhile.

Erin Bailey is a Director at Tuggle Duggins P.A., where she focuses her practice on estate planning, trust administration and employee benefits. She can be reached at ebailey@tuggleduggins.com.