Choosing a Trustee: Why Naming Your Kid May Be a Mistake — Marguerite Lorenz Short answer: Naming your child as trustee, executor, or agent under your power of attorney is the default choice for most American families — and it is frequently the wrong one. In this episode of Wealth Actually, host Frazer Rice talks with California Licensed Professional Fiduciary and Master Certified Independent Trustee Marguerite Lorenz about why roughly two-thirds of American adults still have no estate plan, why the job of a trustee is far more intimate and technical than families expect, and how to decide between a family trustee, a bank or trust company, and an independent professional trustee. https://youtu.be/56bzuORe8YI Episode Overview: Who Will Actually Run Your Plan? Most estate planning conversations stop at the documents. Marguerite Lorenz argues the documents are the easy part. The hard part is staffing — deciding who steps in when you can no longer make new decisions, and whether that person can absorb the technical, financial, and emotional weight of the job. Lorenz has served as trustee, executor, agent under power of attorney for finance, and agent for health care for hundreds of families since 2003. She is the author of three books — Luck or Control? The Life-Improving Power of Estate Planning, How to Be a Successful 90-Year-Old, and the newly updated Ethics for Trustees 2.0 — and she is Vice-Chair of the Independent Trustee Alliance. Her framing line, and the one that should stick with every listener: “If you don’t get your estate plan done, you’re suing your family. You’re making them go to court. And who would want to make anyone else go to court?”— Marguerite Lorenz This is the second time Marguerite has joined the show. Her first appearance covered the mechanics of individual trusteeship: EP.75 — Individual Trusteeship with Marguerite Lorenz. Key Takeaways •Only about a third of American adults have any written estate plan — and Lorenz argues half of those plans would not actually function when needed. •Professionals are barely better than the public. When Lorenz polls rooms of attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors, roughly one-third raise their hands for a complete, up-to-date, ready-to-go plan. •The trustee role is intimate, not administrative. A trustee sees your paperwork, your bills, your medications, and your bedroom. “Who is going to be the first person in your bedroom when you are no longer able to make new decisions?” •Incapacity, not death, is the long tail. Many people live for five or six years unable to make new decisions. The trustee’s job often runs during your lifetime, not just after it. •A professional trustee can be temporary. Lorenz recounts stepping in for a client during cancer treatment, providing a full accounting, and stepping back down when he recovered — then serving again after his death. Would your child step back down? •Estate planning is about preferences, not predictions. “Our power in estate planning is not prediction, it’s setting our preferences” — and preferences can only be set while you are competent. •Quality of life belongs in the plan. Not just tax, legal, and financial terms — but how you want to live, where you want to live, and what small things matter (for Lorenz, an international selection of dark chocolate). •Digital assets are now a core trustee problem. Phones, social accounts, and daily transactions all require someone with access and authority. •A will does nothing while you are alive. “The will doesn’t operate at all if you go to the hospital and you haven’t granted authority to anyone.” •Cost is usually overestimated. Both an estate plan and an independent professional trustee typically cost far less than probate court. •Revisit every five years. Calendar a five-year check-in with your attorney to review law changes, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths. Chapters and Timestamps •[00:00] Cold open: “If you don’t get your estate plan done, you’re suing your family.” •[00:32] Welcome back — introducing Marguerite Lorenz, California trustee and author •[01:14] Luck or Control? — why fear keeps families from finishing an estate plan •[02:22] What a full-time trustee actually sees: trustee, executor, agent for finance, agent for health care •[03:49] Why families default to naming a child — and where that breaks down •[05:00] The skill set nobody screens for: negotiation, calm, empathy, and grief •[05:40] Case study: serving as temporary trustee through a client’s cancer treatment — and stepping back down •[07:51] Why even attorneys need their own attorney: nobody is objective about their own circumstances •[09:09] The five-year estate plan check-in as a life milestone •[09:39] How to Be a Successful 90-Year-Old — living well to the very end •[10:20] The “black box” problem: privacy, dignity...
Mostra di più
Mostra meno
Oct 6 202631 min