Goals of trust company modest as it establishes institutional unit

Jim Penn, the founder of Reno-based Garrison Trust Co., doesn't have grandiose plans for his company's new Garrison Institutional Services unit.

If things go well, Penn figures, Garrison Institutional Services will help about 10 wealth managers around the nation create and operate trust companies in Nevada.

But even that modest number will generate a lot of work for Garrison Trust, which currently operates with a staff of two from unprepossessing offices on Airmotive Drive.

"We're getting a lot of prospects, but we'll need a lot of prospects," says Penn. "This isn't the kind of business that is going to create trust company after trust company."

If nothing else, Penn says, the daunting requirements $300,000 minimum in cash, a thorough vetting of trust company executives by the Nevada Division of Financial Institutions will limit the number of would-be trust company owners who decide to follow through.

For wealth managers who decide to create Nevada trusts, Garrison Trust will provide start-up assistance and ongoing administrative assistance, Penn says.

That's likely to bring some increases in the company's Reno staff, adding three or four workers, and will generate other economic benefits such as increased bank deposits, he says.

Scott Walshaw, who served as the state's commissioner of financial institutions from 1983 to 2003, serves as a consultant to Garrison Institutional Services.

Garrison Trust was launched in 2002 after Penn, a retired Air Force officer, acquired a dormant trust company and brought it back to life under a new name.