By Marguerite Lorenz
Every estate plan gets adjusted as your life grows and changes. Please speak to your estate planning attorney and financial advisor regarding specifics in your plan. An experienced attorney will have insights into tax benefits, charitable donations, and your plans for the last years of your life, and will be able to explore your choices with you.
Long before you choose to stop doing the work as trustee yourself, you’ll need to tell your attorney who you select to do the work of implementing your plan. I urge you to get your wishes known and put into writing, as this is the best way I know to avoid probate, maintain your quality of life and sustain family harmony.
Think about who you’d select (or have selected) to serve you if you resign as trustee of your trust; become incapacitated (temporarily or permanently) or die. Here are some questions to consider.
- Does my successor trustee have experience and expertise in handling finances?
- Good accounting and bookkeeping skills? Trust and estate tax experience?
- Will my successor trustee remain objective, responsive and compatible with all beneficiaries of the trust and other members of the family?
- Will my successor trustee be able to devote sufficient time to the managementof the trust, unburdened by other obligations such as a job or family for three years or more?
- Is my successor trustee also a beneficiary, causing a “natural conflict of interest”?
Addressing these questions is a good management technique to care for your loved ones, when you’re no longer able.
Marguerite Lorenz, CTFA, CLPF is host for the "It's Your Estate" program in San Diego County, offering free estate planning education, no sales and charities as sponsors. Learn more at www.ItsYourEstate.org.
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