Seaway Bank & Trust Co. Teaches Community about Land Trusts

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Lois Jenkins, Senior Trust Officer for Seaway Bank & Trust Company answers questions about land trusts.
Lois Jenkins, Senior Trust Officer for Seaway Bank & Trust Company answers questions about land trusts.

All month, Seaway Bank & Trust Company (SBTC) has been providing free seminars on land trusts at its various branches including one held last week at its Bronzeville location, 3501 S. King Dr., and presented by Senior Trust Officer, Lois Jenkins, who also manages the bank’s trust department.

According to the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation , a land trust is a simple, inexpensive method for handling the ownership of real estate. It is an arrangement by which the recorded title to the real estate is held by a trustee, but all the rights and conveniences of ownership are exercised by the beneficial owner (beneficiary) whose interest is not disclosed. This method of owning real estate eliminates many of the difficulties that otherwise may be encountered in acquiring, owning, or selling real estate.

The beneficiary of a land trust changes his or her interest in the property from real estate (title to the property) to personal property (ownership of the beneficial interest). Even though the beneficiary retains complete management and control over the property itself, he or she is not burdened with the legal characteristics of real estate when he or she deals with the property.

Since the beneficial interest is considered to be personal property, it is treated in much the same manner as a car, a savings account, or other tangible property. Consequently, the beneficial interest can be sold, pledged, or assigned in a simpler fashion than a conveyance of realty.

“I live in the community and I think we just need to be educated because there’s so much that we don’t know and I just made it mission to get out and inform,” said Jenkins, who has over 20 years of land trust experience. “They just need to be aware of banking services at all levels of income.”

Land trusts can be beneficial because in the event of emergency or tragedy that involve individuals who own property; a land trust insures that the transfer for land ownership is inexpensive and simple for the beneficiaries that the property owner designates. Some of the benefits of a land trust are:

• Provides privacy of ownership.

• Probate expenses and delays are eliminated. (Probate is the legal system of how to distribute an individual’s assets in the case of their death.) Transfer of ownership is simplified.

• Can serve as collateral for bank loans.

“We’ve been rotating to the various branches just to get the word out [about our land trust deals],” said Claudette Harris, Vice President and Marketing Officer for Seaway Bank and Trust Company. “This is a product that a lot of people don’t know about but need to know about. We certainly need to do more of this in 2014 because there is a great need in the community for education and we have an obligation since we are in the community to provide that to them.”

The seminar was definitely beneficial to at least one attendee who feels she is at the age where establishing a land trust is the smart and timely thing to do.

“I came out to this event because I’m over 60-years-old now and I need to start making arrangements for where I want my house to go to so I make sure it falls to the people who I want to have it,” Deborah Miles, a SBTC customer. “My husband and I are both are over sixty and it just needs to be done so we both know what we both decide and agree upon ourselves so that’s why I’m here.”

Seaway Bank & Trust Company is one of four African American owned and operated banks in the Chicagoland area. Established in January 2, 1965, SBTC is the largest black owned bank in the Midwest and the second largest in the nation. SBTC has five locations in Chicago, one O’Hare International Airport branch, a Milwaukee branch, and branches in the villages of Broadview, Il, Maywood, Il, and Crestwood, Il.

For more information visit http://www.seawaybank.us/.

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