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The
genesis of the Alaska Trust Company, the Alaska Trust Act, and
other unique trust legislation
A
number of years ago, I took off from Lake Hood, Anchorage’s
well-known seaplane base, with my brother Jonathan Blattmachr,
a noted estate planning attorney, and Richard Thwaites, an
estate planning attorney and life-long Alaskan. We were on
our way to the Kenai Peninsula to meet my wife, Patti, who
was waiting to take us on a drift boat trip to catch silver
salmon. It was the first time landing in the Kenai River since
I had left Alaska a few years earlier. As we were landing,
we all remarked at how beautiful the aquamarine color of the
river was.
During
the trip, we had a great day catching our limit of silver
salmon. As we slowly drifted down the river remarking on the
beautiful day and what a great place Alaska is, Patti turned
to me and asked "Why don’t we move back to Alaska?".
At that point, Richard commented that Alaska could really
use an organization that is committed to trust services. We
all spoke about the formation of a trust company and how we
might accomplish that task.
A
couple of years later, we were all in Alaska, again on a fishing
trip. We discussed how great it would be to move to Alaska
and create a financial services industry built around trust
and investment services to help the economy diversify from
oil and mining into an industry that would have no negative
impacts on the environment. At that point, Jonathan said,
"If we can get the Alaska Legislature to make some changes
in its trust statutes, Alaska could become the premiere jurisdiction
to have trusts established and administered." With that,
a major effort was made.
First
we needed to form a trust company. Even though Alaska had
statutes on its books for forty years for the formation of
a trust company, no one had ever formed an independent trust
company in Alaska. In addition, we needed to draft legislation
and get it to the legislature. Jonathan drafted the Alaska
Trust Act. We were able to get the Act passed, form a trust
company, as well as make changes to Alaska’s limited liability
and limited partnership statutes. It
took over two years to accomplish these tasks. With hard work
and the foresight of both the Legislature and the Governor’s
office, we were able to accomplish what we set out to do,
to make Alaska the premiere jurisdiction for trust services.
Over the next several years additional unique pieces of legislation
have been passed in the Alaska Legislature.
From
the beginning, our goal was to provide the finest trust services
in the country and to make a commitment to Alaska.
Douglas
J. Blattmachr, President and CEO |
