How to choose a trustee or personal representative
Most estate plans fail on people, not paperwork. Who you put in charge matters more than almost any clause in the documents.
A Michigan plan typically asks you to name four sets of people. They are different jobs with different demands, and the same person is not always right for all of them.
| Role | When they act | What the job really is |
|---|---|---|
| Personal representative | After death, in probate court | Opens the estate, inventories assets, notifies creditors, files returns, distributes what remains. |
| Successor trustee | On your incapacity or death | Manages and invests trust assets, pays expenses, keeps records, distributes per the trust; sometimes for years. |
| Agent under a financial power of attorney | While you are alive | Pays bills, deals with banks, manages property, handles taxes and benefits. |
| Patient advocate | While you are alive, if you cannot decide | Makes medical decisions, speaks to doctors, honors your stated wishes under pressure. |
What actually makes someone good at this
- Follow-through. The work is deadlines, paperwork and phone calls. A kind person who never opens mail will struggle.
- Financial steadiness. They do not need to be an accountant; they need their own finances in order and the sense to hire help.
- Impartiality. They owe every beneficiary a duty, including the ones they like least.
- Willingness to say no. A trustee who cannot refuse an early distribution to a struggling sibling will damage the trust and their own family.
- Proximity helps but is not decisive. Distance is manageable; most work is remote now. Handling a Michigan house from overseas is harder.
- Age and health. Naming a sibling your own age means naming good successors behind them.
The birth-order trap
Naming the oldest child because they are the oldest is the most common default and a frequent source of conflict. Competence, not seniority, should decide. Telling the others why you chose who you chose; during your life; prevents most of the resentment.
Should you name co-trustees?
Two children serving together feels fair and often works badly. Unless the document says otherwise they must act unanimously, so every bank form needs two signatures and one holdout stops everything. Naming one with a clear successor usually serves the family better than naming two to keep the peace. Where you genuinely want oversight, a better structure is one acting trustee plus a named person with the power to remove and replace them.
Always name successors
When to consider a professional trustee
- the trust will run for many years, such as one for minors or a special needs trust;
- beneficiaries have creditor, addiction or divorce problems;
- the family is blended and a child of the first marriage watches a second spouse;
- the assets include a business, rental portfolio or concentrated stock;
- there is no relative you would trust with the money and the tension both.
A bank or trust company charges an annual fee based on assets and will not be warm about it; but it never gets tired, never plays favorites, and never stops filing. A middle path is a family member as trustee with a professional co-trustee or trust protector.
Before you finalize the names
- ask each person first; nobody should learn this from a lawyer's letter;
- tell them where the documents are kept and who your advisors are;
- decide whether they should be paid; Michigan permits reasonable compensation, and saying so in the document avoids awkwardness later;
- revisit the names after a divorce, a death, a move, or every three to five years; see when to update your estate plan.
For what the job entails once it starts, review the duties of a personal representative in Michigan.
This article is general information about Michigan law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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