Kelley Rating (one asterisk = lowest, five asterisks = highest):

• Ease of navigation, design of interface and learning curve ******
• Instructional documentation and help system ***
• Carries out the goal of the product as advertised *****
• Overall usefulness *****

PT Manageris designed to facilitate the management and administration of trusts through communication, compliance, scheduling and reporting. It is intended for trust management institutions, but useful to others who administer trusts for private trustees, such as law firms. The program also is useful for family offices given the high degree of personal contact they have with family members.
This program:

• Reduces the time and effort required for administrative matters;
• provides quick access to biographical, historical, and financial account information;
• systemizes administrative procedures;
• tracks compliance matters;
• facilitates trust account audits;
• and furnishes a comprehensive report for annual account reviews.

Competitors

Other programs facilitate trust inception, administration and termination, but not with the administrative focus of PT Manager.

Cowles Trust Terminator works through the details involved in trust termination. It generates correspondence and documents, and includes tracking tools to assist with obtaining asset information, creating an inventory of assets, and completing the final accounting and distribution.

EstateWorks, TrueSettlementis a web-based work-flow solution directed toward the process of administering estates. It manages cases and contacts, automates task assignments and due dates, and tracks tasks to completion—including sending standard letters and producing management reports.

Connect2A is a web-based data management service designed to gather, share and update clients’ personal and financial information for planning applications and periodic client reviews. The accumulated data may be applied during the planning, lifetime maintenance and after-death administration of clients’ estates. This service also tracks asset and beneficiary changes during the trust funding process.

AbacusLaw Estate Planning Special Edition provides practice management for estate planning, trusts and estate administration. It documents the initial client consultation, retainer agreement and information gathering. The software also assists with document drafting, document signing, asset transfers and trust funding.

SettlementCounsel software provides an automated solution for settling estates throughout the post-mortem planning process.

What’s It All About?

After PT Manager is installed and launched it presents a simple and easy to follow interface. According to the publisher, it functions with Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP and Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 or later. Microsoft Vista users should check with the publisher.