What Is Distributable Net Income (DNI)?
April 2, 2026
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855-758-7878
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855-758-7878
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Imagine a family that has spent thirty years building a portfolio of commercial real estate, a closely held business, and a stake in a private fund. Then they sit down to set up a trust and hear the trust company say the assets need to be sold first.
That happens more often than people expect. Plenty of trusts run on stocks, bonds, and cash, and most trust companies are built for exactly that.
But a large share of family wealth often lives somewhere else: a family business, rental property, mineral rights, a piece of private equity. Those holdings need a trustee who can actually take them on.
Choosing a trustee who can administer unique assets isn’t a minor detail. It can be the difference between keeping the assets your family wants to keep and being forced to liquidate them to fit someone else’s system.
Here’s what counts as a unique asset, why some trustees turn them away, and what to look for instead.
A unique asset is any holding that doesn’t fit the tidy box of publicly traded securities and cash. These assets can be hard to value, slow to sell, or carry ongoing responsibilities that a brokerage account never does.
Common examples include:
These often represent the most valuable and most meaningful parts of a family’s wealth. The business someone built. The building that has appreciated for decades. The mineral rights passed down through the family. They carry financial weight and personal weight at the same time, which is exactly why families want to keep them in the trust rather than cash them out.
Most trust companies are designed around traditional investment portfolios. Their systems, procedures, and risk policies assume assets that are simple to custody, value, and report on a quarterly statement. A unique asset breaks can be more complicated.
Holdings like these create real challenges for a trustee:
A family business doesn’t produce a clean month-end price. A piece of commercial real estate needs appraisals, insurance, and management decisions. Mineral rights come with their own reporting. Faced with that, many trustees take the easy route. They decline trusts that hold unique assets, or they accept the trust only on the condition that the assets be sold before it’s funded.
For a family that wanted to keep those assets, that’s not a small ask. It can undo the whole point of the plan.
Families usually want to preserve unique assets, not liquidate them. A family business may generate income and carry decades of identity. Real estate may have appreciated far beyond its original cost, with a sale triggering a large capital gains bill. A private investment may be woven into a larger strategy that only works if the pieces stay together.
When a trustee can’t hold those assets, the family faces a hard choice. Change the plan, or sell things they meant to pass on. Neither is the outcome anyone wanted when they sat down to protect their legacy. This is why the trustee question deserves attention early, before the trust is drafted and funded, not after.
It matters just as much when a family is unhappy with a current trustee. A bank trust department that once handled the family business may get acquired, and the new owner may want those complicated assets gone. If that’s the situation, moving to a trustee who welcomes unique assets can be the reason to make the change.
A corporate trustee experienced with unique assets brings the administrative and fiduciary infrastructure to oversee these holdings responsibly, without forcing a sale. The work looks different from running a stock portfolio, and that’s the point.
In practice, this includes:
The trustee isn’t trying to run the family business or pick the next real estate deal. Its job is fiduciary oversight: making sure the asset is properly held, valued, documented, and administered in line with the trust’s terms and the law. The day-to-day management of the asset itself can stay with the people who already know it best.
That distinction matters, and it connects to a larger structural point. A directed trust lets the family keep their existing advisors and managers in place while a specialized trust company handles the fiduciary administration. For families with unique assets, that arrangement is often the cleanest fit. The people who understand the asset keep doing what they do, and the trustee handles the trust.
Independent Trust Company serves as an independent corporate trustee for trusts that hold both traditional investments and unique assets. As a non-competing trustee, ITC does not manage the investments inside the trust. Instead, it works alongside the family’s existing advisors, attorneys, and asset managers, evaluating each asset and building an appropriate fiduciary and administrative framework around it.
That flexibility means a trust can keep holding real estate, business interests, private investments, and other unique assets when doing so fits the trust’s goals. The family preserves what it built. ITC provides the professional administration, fiduciary oversight, and long-term continuity to support it.
A unique asset is any holding that falls outside publicly traded securities and cash. Common examples include real estate, family-owned businesses, LLC and partnership interests, private equity, oil and gas or mineral rights, intellectual property, fine art and collectibles, and private loans. These assets are typically harder to value, less liquid, and require more ongoing oversight than a standard brokerage portfolio.
Most trust companies are built around liquid, easily valued portfolios. Unique assets bring limited liquidity, complex valuations, specialized tax and legal issues, and ongoing operational oversight that those systems aren’t designed for. Rather than take on that work, some trustees decline trusts holding these assets, or they require the assets to be sold before the trust is funded.
Yes, provided the trustee is willing and able to administer those assets. Many families place real estate, operating businesses, and private investments into trusts. The key is choosing a trustee with experience handling unique assets, because not every trust company will accept them. A trustee that can’t administer the asset may force a sale.
Not in a non-competing, directed structure. The trustee’s role is fiduciary oversight: holding the asset, maintaining valuations and records, monitoring tax and compliance obligations, and administering it under the trust’s terms. The day-to-day management of the business or property can stay with the family or the professionals who already handle it, while the trustee coordinates and oversees.
If a current trustee wants you to sell assets you intended to keep, it may be worth moving the trust to one that administers unique assets. Depending on the trust document, this can often be done through a change of trustee, a situs change, or decanting. It’s worth reviewing your options with a trust company experienced in these assets before making a decision.
If your family holds a business, real estate, private investments, or other unique assets, the trustee you choose matters as much as the assets themselves. The right partner helps you keep what you’ve built rather than forcing a sale to fit a system.
Independent Trust Company works with families and advisors across the country to administer trusts that hold both traditional and unique assets. Contact us today to start the conversation.
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