Did a bank ask for all the beneficiaries of your business trust?

Yes, this has become standard. Banks are required to identify beneficial owners under FinCEN rules. For a trust owning an LLC, they often want to see through to the beneficiaries. It's not personal, it's regulatory.

I had the same thing happen at a credit union. They wanted the trust document and a beneficiary list. I asked if I could just provide a certificate of trust and they said no. It felt invasive but I didn't have the energy to fight it

Which bank? Some are definitely more aggressive than others. I've had better luck with smaller community banks that actually read the trust documents instead of just applying a blanket policy.

Beneficial ownership info collected by banks is kept confidential and not put in a public database, but it is reported to FinCEN. The real privacy concern is the new federal BOI reporting requirement for LLCs, which is separate from bank KYC. If you haven't looked into that yet, you should ngl.

I think people overestimate what a revocable trust hides. If you're the grantor and trustee, you're not exactly invisible. Banks know this. The privacy benefit is more about keeping your name off public property records, not hiding from financial institutions.

That's a good point. Also, if the trust is revocable, the beneficiaries are often just family members. The bank isn't asking because they're nosy; they're asking because they have to file a currency transaction report or suspicious activity report if something looks off. It's a compliance checkbox.

I still don't like it. My trust has minor beneficiaries and I didn't want to hand over their information. I ended up restructuring so the LLC is owned directly by me and the trust is just a holding entity for other assets. Probably overkill but it made me feel better.

Appreciate the responses. I guess I was naive about how much banks can see through a trust. I'll look into the BOI reporting thing. Sounds like I have more homework to do.

Don't beat yourself up. The rules have changed a lot in the last few years. Even people who set up these structures years ago are scrambling to understand the new reporting requirements. The bank asking for beneficiaries is just the tip of the iceberg.

One practical tip: ask the bank for their written policy on trust accounts. Sometimes they ask for more than they actually need, and having it in writing can help uou push back or at least understand what's mandatory versus what's just their internal preference.

also, be aware that if you refuse to provide beneficiary info, the bank can simply decline to open the account. There's no right to a bank account. It's frustrating but that's the reality. If privacy is the priority, some people use non-bank financial services or foreign accounts, but that comes with its own complications

I've heard of people using a nominee trustee or a corporate trustee to add a layer, but that gets expensive and might not even satisfy the bank's KYC requirements. They usually want to know the actual humans behind the structure regardless.