About Collin LaFollette

With more than 30 years in financial services, Collin LaFollette founded Bent Tree Trust Advisors in 1996 as an independent, registered investment advisory firm. Early in his career, he became an investment advisor representative at a time when most professionals worked as brokers, and he felt called to offer something different—transparent, unbiased guidance focused solely on clients’ best interests.  Disheartened by sales‑driven practices in the industry, Collin built a firm committed to clear disclosure, thoughtful tax awareness, and a holistic approach to planning. As a fee‑based fiduciary, Bent Tree Trust Advisors answers only to its clients and draws from a wide range of strategies to serve them with integrity.

Bent Tree Trust Advisors uses third‑party custodians to hold client assets—an added layer of protection Collin considers essential. Your accounts remain in your name, and only you can withdraw funds. As a registered investment advisory firm, we don’t earn commissions on equity trades and fully disclose all forms of compensation. We also examine the hidden trading costs inside many ‘no‑load’ mutual funds, which can reduce returns. Because we are fee‑based, our compensation grows only when your portfolio grows. Unlike brokers who earn commissions on each trade, our structure is designed to keep our interests aligned with yours.

But the thing that makes Bent Trust Advisors really unique is that they combine financial planning, innovative and little-known tax strategies, and advanced estate planning techniques together to help clients in a truly comprehensive fashion. It’s really important that all disciplines work together, your estate attorney, CPA, financial advisor, property & casualty agent, investments, and life insurance in order to build, protect, and retain the most wealth possible for both the short and long term, Collin says.

Collin has a keen interest in doing more than just investing for clients, so he made it a point to learn more about tax planning so that he could team up with CPAs. A lot of advisors say they do tax planning, but we seek to implement tax solutions. For instance, before you retire, many advisors suggest you do a series of Roth conversions converting taxable to non-taxable funds. That’s fantastic, paying no taxes during retirement is a great idea. But unfortunately, those Roth conversions create taxable events in each year that you do them. So why not find a solution to mitigate those taxes, too? We did find a way to do this. In fact, that’s the sort of thing we do that few other firms offer, Collin says.

One of the things Collin really enjoys is getting introduced and then working closely with CPAs and estate attorneys to implement perfectly legal strategies but little-known like certain trusts he’s found that can help clients save money on taxes now, and on long-term capital gains or estate taxes for the long-term. He pursued and earned his CEP® (certified estate planner) designation so that he could learn more about the ways people can pass on more tax-advantaged wealth to their chosen beneficiaries or charities while mitigating taxes.

See Collin’s CEP designation here: https://nicep.org/profile/collin-d-lafollette-id-556

I enjoy coordinating all the disciplines. I help tax professionals get trust returns and Schedule A information, along with other information they need to do their jobs every year. And we work with estate attorneys so that they can complete accurate trust documents, he says. We also look ahead to find ways to reduce taxes in the future.

As Collin puts it, The kind of work we do takes time and a lot of analysis. I’m dedicated to clients for the long haul and I have a long-term focus. But it all starts with listening. I try to listen rather than talk. I have to know a lot in order to put everything together, and I need to see statements and tax returns. (Learn more about How to Get Started with Bent Tree Trust Advisors.)

Customized and thorough planning requires that I understand the complete picture. I realize some people are uncomfortable with that at first, before they actually know me, but we want to truly serve your best interests. Other advisors may just be out to sell you something that’s not our approach. Growing assets, saving on taxes, and protecting money properly requires a lot of data. Don’t bring your checkbook; financial planning isn’t about a transaction or purchase it’s about creating a comprehensive plan with investment, tax and estate strategies that make sense for you.

Collin comes from a family of educators, so explaining the why behind financial strategies comes very naturally to him. I want you to know what you are doing, he says. I like to make things easy to understand, whether it’s investing properly, using charitable trusts, creating a plan for long-term care expenses in retirement, doing Roth conversions to save on taxes, or a hundred other strategies that may work for you,  he says. Explaining things is one of my superpowers, and my goal is absolutely no surprises. My clients are all my friends. There is complete transparency about all fees, anticipated returns, and costs.