Date: Fri 16-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Fleet-bank-Hawley-Trust

Full Text:

Fleet Delivers Good News On The Hawley Trusts

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Town Hall Board of Managers received some good news Tuesday night.

According to Fleet Bank, the financial performance of the Mary Hawley Trust

Fund is starting to improve.

"They reallocated some of our stock, and we received $1,900 more in interest

for this quarter," explained Marie Sturdevant of the board of managers. For

the quarter, which ended in September, Mary Hawley's trust yielded $7,700 in

interest.

"It was a positive meeting. They come in quarterly to give us a report," Mrs

Sturdevant said. "The returns were so low there for a while. We weren't

satisfied."

The stock market performance, even in its down time, has been a major help to

the $250,000 trust, which is made up mostly of stocks and bonds.

"I'm not sure I understand it all, but when the stock market goes down, we get

more money in dividends," said Bill Honan, a member of the board of managers.

said.

Fleet Bank has also revised its fee structure upon the request of town

officials.

"We felt they were charging us too much for maintaining the trust. They did

loosen up," Mr Honan said.

Hawley School and the Cyrenius Booth Library also own Hawley trust funds.

Those are expected to yield more interest/dividends, as well.

However, while the trusts are producing higher yields, town officials are

seeking to change their overall portfolio. That is not easy to do, however.

In 1930, Miss Hawley created the trusts with strict orders that the bank

(Hartford National at the time) not change the way the money was invested.

There were no mutual funds in those days and the money was invested very

conservatively at the sole discretion of the bank. The banks were merged since

then and the trusts are now in the hands of Fleet Bank.

Hawley School and the library each have trust funds worth more than $1

million.