Choose the Right Executor or Trustee

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You’re a step ahead of the pack if you’ve created a will or trust. Don’t stumble at the finish line by naming the wrong executor or trustee.

See also: Reasons to reject an inheritance.

Follow these five rules to ensure your wishes are fulfilled.

You don’t need a Wall Street whiz to act as your executor or trustee. But you do need a person who knows when it’s time to involve an expert. “You need someone with good, basic business

sense, and if you have a trust, I prefer someone who’s going to be conservative in managing the trust’s money,” says Thomas Taneff, an estate-planning lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. “Choose

someone who has good judgment and common sense. I like people who aren’t afraid to research and ask for help, not know-it-alls who think they don’t need help."

will be around to act  

“Take into account the person’s age and health and the likelihood of that person being around to administer your estate,” advises Dave Heilich, a CPA and wealth planner at Brown Smith

Wallace in St. Louis. “Obviously, an executor or trustee has to outlive you, so you wouldn’t want to name your brother or sister if they’re your age or older.”

Every estate-planning expert has faced an executor or trustee who was unavailable when needed — whether because of disability, distance, or death. That’s why they harp on naming backups. “I

see people name their parents or an old uncle because he used to work at a bank,” says Debra L. Morrison, a wealth manager at Trovena LLC in Lincoln Park, N.J. “That’s fine, but a trust has

to include successor trustees.”

You can name a successor yourself, allow your executor or trustee to name a successor, or designate a corporate executor or trustee.

“We always have a corporate trustee as final backup,” says Heilich.