Trust Manages Wealth

DATE: November 7, 2010
PUBLICATION: New Hampshire Sunday News (Manchester, NH)
By DENIS PAISTE New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER -- Perspecta Trust, based in Hampton, and other trust companies mostly serve high-net-worth individuals and families, providing comprehensive trust and wealth transfer planning services.

"We've come along nicely. We're growing, and we're happy with our development," said Paul Montrone, who co-founded Perspecta Trust in 2007.

Montrone, 69, and Paul Meister, 56, who were formerly chairman and vice chairman of Fisher Scientific, respectively, founded Perspecta a year after Thermo Electron Corp. acquired Fisher for $10.6 billion in stock. Neither man has an active role in management of the new company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

"Perspecta was initially a trust company for our own families, and then we expanded to include other families that are interested in similar services," Montrone said.

"The way we do business is based on the way Paul (Meister) and I would like to have our trusts administered," Montrone said. "This style appeals to people that have grown businesses and perhaps sold them, now find themselves with radically different personal balance sheets and estate-planning needs.

"It always amazes me that successful businesspeople spend most of their careers trying to grow their wealth, but have little focus on keeping it," Montrone said. "Most estate plans that we see are terribly sub-optimized and completely outdated. They really should be reviewed any time the family has undergone a significant change, whether financially or otherwise."

Perspecta clients typically have $50 million or more in trust, but the firm does offer services to those with less.

Privacy is a key concern for people, he said. "Clients want to be absolutely certain that their personal information is in good hands,and that they have the utmost confidence in us. Credibility is also very important with clients, and we make certain that we never compromise on that front," he said.

Perspecta offers a team in Montrone and Meister who have worked together almost 30 years, running many private and public companies, most recently at Fisher Scientific. Montrone and Meister have created more than $19 billion in value for shareholders during their careers, according to Perspecta.

"If you deal with Perspecta, you deal with Paul Meister and Paul Montrone," he said. "We have our own personal trusts there. It's the peer-to-peer relationship that our clients like. We have been in their shoes, and we have experienced the issues that they are facing today."

He said Perspecta offers clients an advantage over large bank and trust companies where service is more impersonal and trust officers may come and go.

"For the most part, people with trusts are interested in conservative investments and are not trying to hit a home run," Montrone said. "They're more hitting singles and doubles and protecting the assets they have."

Montrone and Meister are active in the management of the investments.

"We make a variety of different investments over time to create a solid return while keeping the volatility low," he said. "You're unlikely to get a huge increase in your portfolio in any given year, but you're also unlikely to get a huge decrease."

On the Net: www.perspectatrust.com