When donors make gifts — during their lives or upon death — they typically give up control. Trusts have long been a tool for donors to maintain influence over how assets are managed and distributed by choosing trustees and drafting instructions. Traditionally, the settlor — the person creating the trust — cannot serve as trustee, especially if they want the trust to achieve certain tax or asset protection goals.

But an AI program could be trained on the settlor’s wishes to make decisions the way the settlor would. This program can be incorporated into the trust structure as a settlor-trained AI (STAI) trustee, in a formal or informal way, so that a digital version of the settlor provides guidance long after the settlor can.

This episode explores the concept of the STAI trustee and summarizes key concepts from a recent article Steve authored with colleague David Hirsch. The STAI trustee could be a powerful tool to help settlors structure trusts to carry out their wishes in the future, but there are pitfalls to navigate in exploring this concept.