This fall, Pennsylvania’s new Directed Trust Act (Act 64 of 2024) went into effect and modernized the administration of trusts in Pennsylvania. The Directed Trust Act created three new fiduciaries positions for trusts in Pennsylvania: a trust director, a trust protector, and a trust director for investments. By creating these new fiduciary positions, settlors now have more flexibility to structure and assign fiduciary responsibilities within a trust beyond the traditional trustee role.

As defined by the Directed Trust Act, a “directed trust” is a trust in which the terms of a trust grant a power of direction. A power of direction is a power granted to a person under the trust which is exercisable while the person is not serving as a trustee, is a power over the investment, management, or distribution of trust property or other matters of trust administration, including the power to modify the terms of a trust, and includes an incidental power that is appropriate and necessary to the exercise or nonexercise of a power of direction.