Selecting a Trustee: Five Steps to a Successful Relationship

The trustee and beneficiary relationship has great potential to be personally rewarding for both parties. It can also be very challenging. The path for success starts with some crucial conversations about what’s involved in the trustee role. This 2012 FOX Fall Forum session looked at the critical steps grantors, beneficiaries and trustees must take to ensure each party is educated, engaged and accountable.

Some key takeaways:

• The goals of the grantor inform important decisions about the creation of the trust, from type to the duration to the nature and amounts of the distributions.
• A trustee is not a guarantor of outcomes. A trustee is a guarantor of process.
• There are more than legal duties at stake for a trustee (e.g. elder care, next-gen business planning, personal financial planning, grief counseling, addiction counseling)
• The beneficiary has responsibilities ranging from understanding the terms of the trust and a general understanding of fiduciary accounting to meeting with the trustee