IDX Funds renames complex, replaces most of board

IDX becomes Trailmark, replaces two of three trustees, adds new officers and new legal counsel

The IDX Funds trust has rebranded itself with a new name –  the Trailmark Series Trust – a changeover of its three-person board and the appointment of new officers and legal counsel.

Board chair Kelley Brennan, 83, who had served as an independent trustee on the trust since 2015, and independent trustee Tobias Caldwell, 58, who was appointed in 2016, both resigned their posts effective June 27, according to an Aug. 7 SEC filing.

Both agreed to leave as part of a plan approved by the board that left independent trustee Nicholas Carmi, 59, who has served on the board since 2021, as the sole remaining member of the board, according to a May 27 filing.

Under the plan, which was approved during a shareholder meeting June 27, Carmi will continue to serve as an independent trustee. The other two seats will be filled by one new independent trustee and one interested trustee.

The new interested trustee is Christopher MacLaren, 41, a founder and managing member of Trailmark Fund Solutions, who previously served as the managing director of fund administration and accounting at Winbridge Partners.

The new independent trustee, and new board chair, is Jay Nusblatt, 64, who retired from his position as managing director of sales and business development at Donnelley Financial Solutions in 2023.

The changes keep the size of the board stable, though it now consists of two independent and one interested trustee, rather than having three trustees who were all independent.

The firm declined to share the reasoning behind the big changes in board personnel except to say, in the May 27 proxy filing, that having shareholders elect two of the three current members of the board gives the Trust the ability, under the rules of the Investment Company Act of 1940, to appoint new members later without requiring shareholder approval of those appointments.

The new plan also included the appointment of two new officers, a new president and principal executive officer, Brandon Byrd, 44, and a new CCO, John Wowak, 49.

Byrd presently serves as the director of fund operations at Trailmark Fund Solutions, and its new CCO, Wowak, currently serves as the managing director and CCO at Gryphon Compliance Services, which is a firm the trust recently partnered with to provide such services.

In addition to all the changes mentioned above, the firm named Thompson Hine as the trust’s new legal counsel, representing the trust and its trustees.

The fund complex overseen by the Trailmark Series Trust board includes two funds: the $18m IDX Risk-Managed Digital Assets Strategy Fund (BTIDX) and the $21m IDX Adaptive Opportunities Fund (COIDX).

The board maintains two standing committees, an audit committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee, which comprises all independent trustees.

Under the IDX Funds trust name, its independent trustees received compensation totaling $26,000 for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2024; however, the new independent trustee of the new Trailmark Series Trust is expected to receive compensation totaling $16,000 for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2025, according to a recent SEC filing. The board imposes no specific term limits or mandatory retirement age on trustees.

Trailmark Fund Solutions is a Cleveland, Ohio-based firm that reported a total of over $10bn in assets under administration as of the end of July.

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