In a previous Insight, Wingspan Partner Maryann Bell wrote about why a letter of wishes matters for families who use trusts in their estate planning and what it can do that a legal document cannot.
In a new article for the STEP Journal (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), she takes the question to the other side of the table: the lawyers, trust officers, and estate planners who advise the families behind those structures. If a letter of wishes is going to do real work, what should advisors be telling their clients about how to write one?
One important caveat up front. Trusts are primarily a common-law instrument, most developed in places like the US and UK. Civil-law countries handle inheritance differently and forced-heirship rules in those jurisdictions can override trust provisions even when a trust is recognized. Maryann’s discussion, and this summary, focus on the common-law context where a letter of wishes does its most useful work.
A letter of wishes does not amend the trust or bind the trustees. What it does, Maryann writes, is provide context for the exercise of discretion. It helps trustees answer the kinds of questions that come up in practice but rarely appear in the trust document itself:
- Should a request be treated as ordinary support or as lifestyle enhancement?
- Is capital preservation meant to take priority over current-generation benefit?
- How should competing beneficiary interests be balanced?
- To what extent should entrepreneurial risk be encouraged?
For families, the takeaway from the STEP article is less about whether to have a letter of wishes and more about what to expect when you sit down with your advisor to draft one. Maryann offers four practical principles that should shape that conversation.
- Clarify purpose, not specifics. A letter of wishes should explain the thinking behind the trust, not try to dictate how distributions should be made. Overly prescriptive letters risk being read as binding instructions, which defeats the purpose of having a discretionary structure in the first place.
- Write in a measured, forward-looking tone. These documents are usually read many years later, in circumstances the person who created the trust could not have predicted. The tone should travel well across time.
- Encourage periodic review. While the person who created the trust still has capacity to weigh in, the letter can be updated to reflect changes in family circumstances, assets, or the regulatory environment. Once they are gone, the most recent version typically stands as the final word.
- Account for corporate trustees. Institutional fiduciaries need to be able to show that decisions were made for good reasons. A thoughtful letter gives them evidential support that discretion has been exercised consistently with the original intent.
One last note: letters of wishes should be dated, signed, and stored alongside the trust documents for authentication. Notarization is worth considering in some jurisdictions, though it does not change the non-binding nature of the letter.
The broader argument Maryann makes to her practitioner peers is that letters of wishes belong in the standard trust-planning conversation, not as an afterthought. Trusts that are technically robust can still become vulnerable to ambiguity once the person who created them is no longer in the room. A letter of wishes is one of the cleanest, lowest-cost ways to preserve continuity of intent across generations.
For families, the practical point is this: if your advisor hasn’t raised the idea of a letter of wishes yet, it’s worth reaching out to ask about one. For the Rising Generation, the question is a little different: if anyone in your family has an estate plan that involves trusts, ask whether a letter of wishes exists. Better yet, ask them to share their wishes with you. If one doesn’t exist, suggest they consider creating one.
NOTE: The full article sits behind the STEP Journal paywall. If you’re not a STEP member and would like to read it, email us at info@wingspanlegacy.com and we’ll send you a PDF.
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At the 2025 STEP Private Client Awards, Wingspan was recognized as Family Business Advisory Practice of the Year.
