One of the most persistent and underestimated issues in trust administration today isn’t about investment strategy or tax planning.
It’s much more basic: getting a trust current account opened in the first place.
Across the market, solicitors, financial advisers, and trustees are encountering the same problem. Trusts are being established, funds are being transferred, but access to those funds is delayed — sometimes for weeks or even months — because banking facilities are not in place.
And without a functioning account, the trust can’t properly operate.
A Process That No Longer Reflects Modern Reality
In theory, opening a trust account should be a straightforward administrative step.
In practice, it has become increasingly difficult due to a combination of factors:
- Reduced branch networks across the UK
- Increased compliance and onboarding requirements
- Strict identity and verification processes
- Trustees being geographically dispersed
- Limited flexibility in traditional banking procedures
Many trustees are not based in the same location, and some may not even be in the UK. Coordinating in-person appointments, document checks, and bank requirements becomes a significant logistical challenge.
What was once a simple administrative task now often requires multiple steps, repeated visits, and considerable time commitment.
The Real-World Impact: Delays and Frustration
These delays have practical consequences.
When a trust is set up and funds are ready, but no account exists to receive or manage them, several issues arise:
- Money is effectively “in limbo”
- Trustees cannot act on the trust’s objectives
- Solicitors may be restricted in how they can assist further
- Beneficiaries experience unnecessary delays
- Administrative costs and time pressures increase
In some cases, the trust is technically established but not operational — creating frustration for everyone involved.
Increasing Regulatory Pressure on Proper Structures
At the same time, regulatory expectations have tightened.
Guidance from professional bodies, including the SRA, makes it clear that solicitor client accounts should not be used as long-term banking solutions for ongoing trust management.
Instead, trusts are expected to have their own dedicated banking arrangements.
While this is the correct direction from a governance and compliance perspective, it has added urgency to an already difficult process: trusts need proper accounts in place quickly — but the system does not always support that speed.
The Core Challenge: Capacity, Not Willingness
It is important to recognise that the issue is not a lack of intent from trustees or advisers.
The challenge is capacity.
Trustees are often:
- Busy professionals with limited availability
- Spread across different locations
- Unfamiliar with banking onboarding requirements
- Unable to attend branches during working hours
- Dealing with complex documentation requirements
Even when everyone is willing to complete the process, the practical barriers can make it extremely difficult to progress efficiently.
A More Practical Solution: Remote Trust Account Opening
To address this growing issue, we provide a service designed to simplify and accelerate the process of opening trust current accounts remotely.
Rather than placing the burden on trustees or solicitors to navigate multiple banking processes, we take on the coordination and administrative workload involved in getting accounts opened.
This includes:
- Managing onboarding requirements with providers
- Coordinating documentation and compliance checks
- Handling communication with banking institutions
- Reducing the need for trustee involvement in repetitive administrative steps
- Working to ensure accounts are opened as efficiently as possible
The aim is to remove unnecessary friction and make the process more predictable and manageable.
Why This Matters for Solicitors and Professional Advisers
For solicitors and advisers, this issue can create a significant drain on time and resources.
While it sits outside core legal or advisory work, it often becomes a practical bottleneck that delays wider trust administration.
By outsourcing this function, professionals can:
- Reduce administrative workload
- Improve turnaround times for clients
- Avoid repeated interactions with banking onboarding processes
- Focus on legal, advisory, and compliance responsibilities
- Deliver a smoother client experience overall
In many cases, the value is not just speed — it’s removing frustration from a process that has become disproportionately complex.
Final Thought
Trusts only function properly when they are operational — and that requires access to appropriate banking facilities.
Yet increasingly, the process of opening those facilities has become one of the biggest delays in the system.
The challenge is no longer about whether trusts should have their own accounts — that is well established. The challenge is how to get them opened efficiently in a world where traditional banking processes have become slower and more fragmented.
A more streamlined, supported approach helps bridge that gap — ensuring trusts can move from setup to operation without unnecessary delay.
Because ultimately, a trust is only as effective as its ability to actually function.