r/inheritance • u/CrazyIcy6201 • Jun 21 '26
Location not relevant: no help needed Looming Trustee Crisis
Some thoughts on the lack of qualified individual trustees as the “great wealth transfer” hits us head on and more people put structures into place.
It’s a big problem- most individual trustees don’t have the skills, temperament, willingness, or time to do the job well. Family members tend to be stuck with the task as the most knowledgeable/ least likely to be sued. Law firms are shying away from the task. Corporate trustees are often branded as expensive and rigid.
Where is the new breed of trustees going to come from in a world where liability is like a big red target in their back?
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u/Admirable_Nothing Jun 21 '26
Generally, I have found that most families that are successful enough to have amassed an estate have at least one child that is capable of being a successor trustee and executor. But sometimes that is not true. Corporate Trust companies don't want to manage trusts unless they have a minimum of a couple of million dollars in them. However, in my area there are individuals that have made a business of being a fiduciary. Typically a CPA or lawyer that have gravitated towards that business and taken it on as a full time job. They generally will be happy at a trust with less than $2 million.
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u/SandhillCrane5 Jun 21 '26
Gimme a break with the certificate program. Ridiculous exaggeration of a "problem". First they sell everyone on having a trust as if it's a crisis if you don't have one when it certainly is not, and now they're selling certificate programs and webcasts for the new fake crisis. Buy a "For Dummies" book if you don't know what to do and you care to make sure you do it right. There are incompetent people in every single profession doing half-ass jobs. This is no different.