Newsletter Winter 2021

Wispact Newsletter Winter 2021 

Wispact: Meeting our Mission

Wispact’s Mission is “To improve the lives of people of all ages with disabilities across Wisconsin through the management of special needs trusts to provide more choice, more opportunities, and a better quality of life.”

At the start of 2020, we had just started our transition to a new trustee. The switch to a new trustee was taken after two years of preparation and work. Wispact and our Board of Directors unanimously approved Capital First Trust Company and True Link Financial¹ to provide our Trustee, accounting and investment services. These new providers have allowed Wispact to improve our investment approach; increase our accommodation of unique assets; and provide better trust administration to beneficiaries with enhanced online portal.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and recognizing that Wispact serves some very medically vulnerable individuals, Wispact took decisive and early action to put remote work protocols in place for staff and interactions with clients. We continue to work remotely.

In 2020, with increased use by beneficiaries impacted by the pandemic, Wispact provided a record of more than $4 million in financial assistance to Wispact Trust Beneficiaries through subsidy awards. These grants have assisted more than 750 individuals with disabilities across the state.

Our continuing goal is to improve the service we provide to beneficiaries, their families and advisors, and the professionals who support them. In the coming year, we look forward to fulfilling our mission and improving our service to beneficiaries.

Kevin Hayde | Executive Director
608-268-6006 Ext.201

1. Investment advisory services offered by True Link Financial Advisors, LLC, a registered investment adviser affiliated with True Link Financial, Inc.True Link Financial, Inc. provides the trust administration software and record-keeping platform.

Fee Adjustment Announcement

Wispact made a decision to change business partners at the beginning of 2020. This was the culmination of a project that represented over 15 months of research that occurred throughout 2018 and 2019. Feedback from beneficiaries and creating attorneys was consistent: services by the trustee were in need of attention. The Board of Directors approved the Charter of a Trustee Evaluation Committee to review the services from the current trustee.

After a comprehensive review, this committee (of external stakeholders, board members, and Wispact Staff) and the Board approved new partnerships with True Link Financial (True Link)1 and Capital First. Both new partners share Wispact’s commitment to serve people with disabilities with high-quality financial services.

These partners have allowed Wispact to:

• Investment Approach. True Link Financial Advisors, LLC has paired its specialized focus in serving pooled trusts with investment solutions that leverage high-quality, low-cost, institutionally robust investment products.
• Unique Asset Management. Accommodating unique assets, such as real property, is consistent with Wispact’s broader investment philosophy, which is to put the beneficiary first – always. Unique asset management is just one of the many ways that True Link and Capital First have worked diligently to support the needs of the Wispact Trust. With these new partners, Wispact has been able to carve out a unique asset policy so that we can offer beneficiaries productive management of these assets.
• Trust Administration. One of True Link Financial, Inc.’s distinctive offerings is its trust administration software. True Link has developed a comprehensive trust administration platform that is purpose-built for Pooled Special Needs Trusts and includes an online portal for beneficiaries. True Link has offered Wispact a partnership that is built on ongoing development and improvements to the new online platform.

True Link and Capital First Trust Company both excel at being a flexible partner, working with Wispact to develop customizable processes that enable us to adapt to our clients’ needs and current procedures.

As Wispact continues to grow, we remain committed to offering the best service to our beneficiaries. This has also required us to take an extensive look at our fees. Wispact conducted research to benchmark ourselves against our industry colleagues. When reviewed against our contemporaries Wispact is one of the most competitive offers relative to set-up fees and annual administration expenses of others in this industry. We have been proud to offer the quality of service you expect and deserve while maintaining our fee schedule for over 10 years.

After careful review we have concluded that the investment advisory and recordkeeping fee of our fee schedule will be adjusted by 0.02% (current investment advisory fee is changed from 0.83% to 0.85%) in order to continue to deliver on our commitment to excellence.

The rest of our fee schedule stays the same. To review our complete 2021 Fee Schedule, see https://www.wispact.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-Wispact-Fee-Schedule-revised-12-31-2020.pdf

1. Investment advisory services offered by True Link Financial Advisors, LLC, a registered investment adviser affiliated with True Link Financial, Inc. True Link Financial, Inc. provides the trust administration software and record-keeping platform.

Tax Documents to be Mailed Mid-March – Check and Update Your Mailing Address

Tax documents should be mailed in mid-March by Wispact’s Trustee and Recordkeeping partners – Capital First Trust Company and True Link Financial, Inc..

Now is a good time to check with your beneficiary specialist to make sure your mailing address is up to date and whether any other information needs to be updated.

For a listing of staff contacts, see https://www.wispact.org/staff/ 

Also, please review what tax documents we provide by reading “Overview of 2020 Taxes” in the Fall 2020 Newsletter: https://www.wispact.org/wispact-newsletter-fall-2020/

Contacting Wispact Staff

During the pandemic, Wispact’s Physical Office Location at 226 Corporate Dr., Madison, WI has limited access for the public. Please contact us before visiting. All Beneficiary Specialists are working remotely and processing distributions – if possible submit documents directly via email or fax.

We realize how important our distributions are to you. Please be aware we can process distributions submitted via email and fax much more efficiently than those submitted via mail.
For a list of Beneficiary Specialists and staff, see https://www.wispact.org/staff/

About the Email Newsletter
Beneficiaries and Advisors – Wispact has switched to an email format for newsletters. If you would like someone to receive this (beneficiary or advisor), please reply to James Giese, Director of Communications, jgiese@wispact.org or call 608-268-6006 ext 209. To unsubscribe, click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or reply to this message with your unsubscribe request.

MISSION STATEMENT »
We improve the lives of people of all ages with disabilities across Wisconsin through the management of special needs trusts to provide more choices, more opportunities, and a better quality of life.

If you have questions about your trust account, please contact your Beneficiary Specialist. For information about establishing a new trust account or general information about Wispact, contact our Director of Outreach, James Giese.

Wispact, Inc.
226 Corporate Drive
Madison, WI 53714
(608) 268-6006 | F (608) 252-8449

Wispact, Inc. is not a registered investment adviser, registered stock broker or broker-dealer and does not offer investment advisory services, programs or products. Any investment questions should be directed to qualified licensed professional financial advisers.