Trust Services

A Depository Trust or Trustee is similar to Escrow; is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the trustee or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacting parties. Examples include an account established by a broker for holding funds on behalf of the broker's principal or some other person until the consummation or termination of a transaction; or, a trust account held in the borrower's name to pay obligations such as property taxes and insurance premiums.
A trust account is identical to an escrow account when an owner deposits funds with a third party as a prepayment or deposit for a specific purpose, such as payment for mortgage insurance. The term trust account also describes a trust account that is established for estate planning purposes to hold funds for designated beneficiaries.

Paymaster Services

A paymaster is someone appointed by a group of buyers, sellers, investors or lenders to receive, hold, and dispense funds, commissions, fees, salaries (remuneration) or other trade, loan, or sales proceeds within the private sector or public sector; similar to trustee or escrow.

The primary purpose of a paymaster is to receive fees in escrow by buyers in a large transaction, and disburse to the sellers and brokers on the transaction.

A paymaster is usually, but not required to be, a lawyer (also known as a 'lawyer paymaster'); but insured trustee. When dealing with commission payments on contracts dealing with large amounts of money (such as Oil, Gas, Steel, Iron, Gold, MTN's, VG's, T-Strips, and other instruments), most banks in the United States are very wary of handling such large amounts of money. In addition, most buyers and sellers of such transactions want to place the money with a neutral third party for disbursement. In most cases, the buyer and the seller involved in the transaction require a paymaster be named to handle all incoming and outgoing funds.

A paymaster is a neutral third party and has no knowledge of any particulars of the transaction. They handle the incoming commissions, and then disburses the funds accordingly. In return for their services the paymaster charges a small fee, which is paid directly to them out of the commission proceeds prior to disbursement.