[daeken]

How does the overhead scale when you go from, say, having $10k in the pool to $10m? If a service existed that ran a trust where you could put in money and then dictate where your share gets routed, would this overhead keep going up dramatically as it grows?

[rabidrat]

The overhead is nearly constant with respect to the number of dollars. But the cost goes up linearly with the number of shareholders (as each one needs at least a modicum of attention over time, to update records reflecting changes of dispensation, or to verify death certificates, etc). And the costs also go up with the complexity of the trust, e.g. if the money has to do anything other than being held and dispersed at appropriate times. (Someone has to file the taxes).

Banks often employ someone called a Trust Officer, who handles things like this related to the trusts that the bank is managing (and carrying). They make around $30/hour. And let's say that 100 people each put in $1000, or $100k total. At 3% interest, the fund would generate $3k/year. If each shareholder requires an hour of the trust officer's time over the course of the year, then all income from the trust goes to pay the trust officer, and there's nothing left over to be dispersed.

It sounds like a good idea, and I'd definitely take advantage of the service if it existed. But lawyers and accountants have to be involved, and they want to be paid. And they're expensive.