Response to the Fortress Trust Service Fee Notification
Sep 7, 2024
Dear Valued iTrustCapital Clients,
In response to the Fortress Trust service fee notification provided below, iTrustCapital wants to make clear that it does not support Fortress’ decision to charge iTrustCapital clients any exit fees.
We believe this exit fee is excessive and outside industry standards, and we are disappointed by the actions taken by Fortress Trust and this after-hours communication to our clients on a Friday evening.
For background purposes, we’ve outgrown the Fortress Trust (Qualified Custodian) relationship. iTrustCapital provided notice in April 2024 that we will be off-boarding as an institutional client with a plan to migrate all iTrustCapital retail client assets and related trust services to our newly appointed Qualified Custodian, Fortis Bank, which we named in May 2024.
Since inception, iTrustCapital has successfully completed the bulk migration and safe transition of client assets twice with previous Qualified Custodian vendors and incurred zero service fees upon each exit. Although exit service fees were never contemplated or mentioned in iTrustCapital’s agreement with Fortress Trust, in a good faith gesture, last week iTrustCapital offered to cover any verifiable third-party fees directly associated with the safe and timely transition of iTrustCapital client assets from Fortress Trust to Fortis Bank. We have asked Fortress Trust to provide detailed back up and absolute transparency related to any associated and verifiable third-party costs. We hope to get answers soon.
We want to reiterate this proposed $125 service fee is unprecedented, not customary in the marketplace, and unreasonable based on our prior experience and knowledge of third-party vendor fees, and we oppose it.
If Fortress Trust proceeds with charging iTrustCapital clients the $125 service fee, iTrustCapital will reimburse all client accounts immediately upon Transition to our new Qualified Custodian, Fortis Bank. No further action is required by you at this time.
For additional clarity, if you decide to transfer to another Qualified Custodian of your choosing prior to the planned migration of all iTrustCapital retail client assets to Fortis Bank (presently slated for September 20th), Fortress Trust has already implemented a separate $175 transfer fee which has impacted other iTrustCapital Clients. iTrustCapital opposes all fees, including this fee, and has no control over the fees that Fortress Trust is charging our clients.
As always, we will keep our clients apprised with any further updates and apologize for the inconvenience and any confusion this may have caused as we work to transition all iTrustCapital client assets to Fortis Bank and part ways with Fortress Trust.
iTrustCapital