CASE STUDY - INSPIRE TRUST COMPANY

AT A GLANCE

Launched as a de novo national trust bank in 2023, Inspire Trust Company entered the market with the goal to design and scale a modern fiduciary business without legacy systems or manual bottlenecks. With a mandate to serve individuals and families receiving settlement and court-directed funds, the firm needed automation, auditability, and workflow rigor from its first day in operation.

Today, WealthHub sits at the center of Inspire’s operating model. Every department, from fiduciary services to risk and operations, runs on a single platform that combines client data, workflow processing, automated controls, and Salesforce-grade reporting. This architecture has enabled Inspire to scale from zero to more than 1,600 trust accounts in less than two years, processing approximately 4,000 monthly distributions while maintaining strict fiduciary oversight.

Founded: 2023 | Users: 25 | Clients: Personal injury, special needs, and court-supervised trusts

WealthHub Use Case: End-to-end fiduciary workflows, distributions, reporting, compliance controls, and accounting integration

Key Results

  • Scaled to 1,600+ trusts and ~4,000 monthly distributions without proportional staffing growth
  • Automated routing and approval of distribution requests every 15 minutes
  • System-embedded validations and controls reducing compliance risk
  • Seamless data exchange between WealthHub and SS&C Black Diamond Trust

Launched in 2023, Inspire Trust Company was founded as a highly specialized trust company providing administrative and investment services to clients who have received settlements or proceeds from lawsuits. From the outset, the firm needed a digital-first, compliant, and scalable operating infrastructure that could support complex trust administration, strict oversight requirements, and long-term growth. To meet these needs, Inspire partnered with WealthHub to implement a best-of-breed technology stack purpose-built with the specific and unique capabilities their operating model required. From day one, WealthHub has been the center of Inspire’s operating model, unifying client data, trust administration workflows, automated controls, and audit-ready reporting on a single platform used across trust services, risk, and operations.

THE CHALLENGE

Build a Scalable, Audit-Ready Platform from Scratch

Unlike firms modernizing legacy systems, Inspire began with a blank slate. They needed a system that could launch quickly, meet OCC scrutiny, and deliver a highly automated, digital-first system for both administration and investment oversight. Because each trust carries its own rules, restrictions, and oversight requirements, workflow precision, data integrity, and transparency were mission-critical.

The firm needed a system that could:

  • Serve as the customer and trust data hub.
  • Automate distribution approvals and task routing.
  • Enforce compliance requirements and validation rules.
  • Integrate with a trust accounting engine.
  • Scale rapidly as accounts transferred in.

Inspire also entered the market with a unique volume profile, onboarding nearly 700 accounts in phases during its first year followed by continued organic growth.

“We wanted a single source of truth for every client and trust,” shared Michael Cannella, Chief Regulatory Officer, Inspire Trust. “Something that would give us control, automation, and flexibility, without requiring an IT department to support it.”

THE SOLUTION

WealthHub as the Trust Operating System

After evaluating options, Inspire chose WealthHub for the combination of its purpose-built trust administration architecture and its customization and flexibility to meet Inspire’s unique needs. The firm and WealthHub co-designed custom objects to reflect Inspire’s specialized trust types, including special needs, settlement protection, and state-specific structures. Inspire also standardized page layouts, flows, and dashboards for intuitive user experience.

“The fact that we could go in and heavily customize our various objects to match the specific type of trust we have, with very nuanced and very specific tracking requirements, provided a level of flexibility we just couldn’t get anywhere else,” said Cannella.

User adoption followed naturally. Every functional group, including fiduciary services, investment services, risk, operations, compliance, and leadership, works in WealthHub daily.

Seamless Front-to-Back Integration with SS&C Black Diamond Trust

A foundational milestone was the custom API integration between WealthHub and SS&C Black Diamond Trust. Inspire uses WealthHub for front-office workflow, approvals, and client data and Black Diamond Trust for trust accounting, principal/income ledger, and statements. Inspire users enter all accounts, contacts, and related party relationships into WealthHub, which are then sent automatically to Black Diamond Trust. In the other direction, WealthHub receives nightly financial updates from Black Diamond Trust with balances, positions, and cleared transactions.

“We worked closely with WealthHub during the integration and now it’s rock solid,” added Cannella. “It eliminated double entry, improved accuracy, and gave us total transparency.”

WealthHub also built a data-feed workflow with a third-party affiliate Distribution Director, automatically ingesting direction files every 15 minutes and seamlessly incorporating an outside party into the automated distribution review and approval process.

The WealthHub team has been a true partner. They understand fiduciary work, they’re responsive, and they keep improving the platform right alongside us. We have a weekly call, still three years on, to explore what else we can do.

Michael Cannella, Chief Regulatory Officer, Inspire Trust

THE TRANSFORMATION

High-Volume Automation + Embedded Controls

In less than two years, Inspire Trust scaled from zero to more than 1,600 trust accounts, each requiring high-touch oversight and a high volume of disbursement activity. This level of efficiency was made possible by automation and validation logic built directly into WealthHub.

Distribution requests automatically route through WealthHub’s approval tiers every 15 minutes, driven by rules on amount and trust type. Custom validations ensure that requests cannot proceed until all fiduciary and regulatory conditions are met. Compliance teams use these same controls as an automated audit trail, replacing manual checklists.

As a result, one distribution director can oversee the continual flow of requests, supporting over 4,000 distributions per month.

“Without WealthHub, we would need five or six operations people to manage distributions,” explained Cannella. “Instead, we run it with two. We can put actual validations in place. It gives us comfort and security because compliance is built right into the process, automated and auditable.”

THE RESULT

Scale, Accuracy, Insight, and Confidence

WealthHub enabled Inspire to scale without adding operational drag, ensuring each new trust and each new team member fits seamlessly into the system.

With WealthHub, Inspire:

  • Doubled trust accounts without proportional
    staffing increases.
  • Eliminated dual-entry, manual distribution tracking, and manual reconciliation between front and
    back office.
  • Automated approvals and validations to ensure full compliance visibility.
  • Ensures data integrity and compliance through systematic validations, automated reporting, and audit-ready workflows.
  • Continues to innovate through self-service dashboards and custom reporting.

Perhaps most importantly, the WealthHub–Black Diamond Trust architecture gives Inspire the foundation to continue scaling with confidence.

Reporting Power

WealthHub’s Salesforce foundation allows Inspire to join data from multiple sources and deliver reports tailored to each team’s needs. Daily dashboards track AUM, balances, activity, and exception reports drive accountability and transparency across the organization.

CONCLUSION

A Digital-First Trust Company Built for Growth

With WealthHub at its core, Inspire created a scalable, high-control fiduciary environment built for complex trust administration and rapid account growth. WealthHub’s flexibility meant that Inspire did not have to settle for a system built for traditional retail trust administration but could tailor its workflows for its unique service niche. And the WealthHub team’s customer success partnership enabled continuous refinement and expansion, from initial launch to API integrations and distribution automation.

As Inspire continues its rapid growth, the company is extending its unified technology architecture with new integrations, most notably, SS&C Black Diamond for portfolio management and performance reporting. The firm also plans to further automate internal dashboards and workflows as its client base expands.

Michael Cannella summarized, “The WealthHub team has been a true partner. They understand fiduciary work, they’re responsive, and they keep improving the platform right alongside us. We have a weekly call, still three years on, to explore what else we can do.”