How to Select a Trustee

[Music] Hi this is Stuart a person with Albertson and Davidson who should you choose to be the trustee of your trust it's an important question and most people don't spend a lot of time thinking about when I used to do estate planning my clients would say to me well who should I have be the trustee of my trust and we would just pick one of the children sometimes we pick all the children which is an even bigger disaster and that and that's what usually clients want they want somebody that's close to them they trust that they know that they have some familiarity with and of course a child makes perfect sense for that in eighty percent of cases is probably okay that you choose one of your children you'd probably want to pick your most responsible child doesn't always have to be the eldest it could be the one that's the most successful from a professional standpoint perhaps maybe there's a CPA in the family that's a good choice if there's an attorney that's a good choice if it's your son that ended up in the penitentiary for the last ten years and they just got out that's probably not a good choice to be the trustee of your trust because they're gonna be managing other people's money and the other people may be a little nervous about your son who you certainly still love but has a track record of some felonies that probably don't bode well to being a trustee so what if all three of your kids have been in the penitentiary and you don't want to choose any of the three well then you are stuck with either a close family friend which usually turned out to be a disaster and litigation will ensue or you can choose a professional fiduciary the downside of picking a professional fiduciary is they cost more from a fee standpoint but the upside is if there's no litigation or if the litigation would be a lot less because you have a professional fiduciary involved then it's worth every penny so take some time to think about who's responsible in your family does that person get along with the other beneficiaries of the trust do you think that that will be a seamless administration will there be problems that will arise after your death where people will take vendetta's out against one another through the phone of trust in a state litigation if that's the case you probably want to think about getting a professional fiduciary involved if you find that you have a daughter or a son that's very responsible and the other kids get along with that person well then maybe that would be the best choice for trustee moving forward Albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out Alda law comm for our complete library of helpful legal videos and articles from your favorite California trusts and we'll litigation law firm Albertson and Davidson LLP.