There are individual or corporate trusts, depending upon the nature of the trustors who have created them.

Trustees are not necessarily real persons, for corporations may be designated in this capacity. In fact, there are distinct advantages in having an incorporated organization act as trustee. As a chartered body, it has a continuous existence and so is not subject to the uncertainties which beset the life of an individual. A person's financial strength is inferior to that of the corporation with its capital, surplus, and other resources. Another element of greater safety lies in the fact that the corporation is under close regulation and periodic examination by the state which grants its charter. The corporate trustee can also offer to its clients the benefits arising from the economy of large-scale business. While an individual may be called upon to act as trustee only once in his lifetime, a fiduciary corporation administers trusts daily and so accumulates a vast fund of specialized experience. Because of the volume of its business, a corporate trustee is able to retain the services of experts in investments, law, and other fields of technical knowledge. The judgment of a corporation in dealing with intricate family matters will not likely be influenced by personal feelings which may affect the individual trustee. However, this impersonal nature of the corporation may at times prove a limitation in administering trusts which require sympathetic care. The relative merits of individual and corporate trustees depend largely upon the nature of each particular trust, but the latter is generally regarded as superior because of its permanent existence, financial strength, government supervision, large-scale business, and specialized staff.

As the executing of trusts involves large sums of money, it is quite natural for a trust company in time to develop a banking business. Conversely, a bank with its financial strength is well fitted to administer fiduciary affairs. So, on the one hand, trust companies have entered the field of banking, while banks in turn have invaded the fiduciary business by opening trust departments. This chapter will consider next the development of these movements, then the administration of individual and corporate trusts, and finally government regulation of fiduciary institutions.