Should You Use a Professional Trustee? (Episode # 301)

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Good afternoon, Michigan Anders. It's
Tuesday, March nineteen, twenty twenty four,

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and of course this is Tuesday with
Tom, Michigan's only weekly Internet show

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where we do answer your questions about
a state planning and a state settlement in

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Michigan, and we don't send you
a bill. As always, I'm your

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host, Tom Doyle, a state
planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and

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ambassador for all things good in this
great state of Michigan. Welcome, Welcome

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to today's program. Well, just
a brief recap of the last episode.

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I talked about the benefits of a
trusteed IRA over a traditional IRA. So

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you're looking at your estate plan,
you have an IRA, You're looking at

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what am I going to do with
my IRA? How's that going to be

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part of my estate plan? Perhaps
I don't want the assets of that are

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in the IRA to be distributed outright
to somebody. Listen to last week's episode

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where I talk about what a trustee
IRA is and how it might be appropriate

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for you to consider as part of
your estate plan. Today's topic should you

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use a professional trustee? But please
remember what I'm about to discuss, as

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always is for educational purposes only.
It is not intended to be legal advice.

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You need to work with your attorney. To the attorney and what is

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appropriate for you and your estate plan. Should you use a professional trustee?

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Well, I guess let's start with
a basic question, what exactly is a

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professional trustee? Well, a professional
trustee is going to be perhaps an individual

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or an organization with expertise in managing
trust and estates. Perhaps you have your

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accounts out of at a large bank, which oftentimes offer professional trustee services,

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or you might have accounts with a
large financial organization that might be offering professional

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trustee services. But it's a situation
where that organization or an individual will have

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expertise in managing trust and estates.
While some people might decide, let me

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choose my family members or friends to
work as trustees, others may well op

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for professionals due to the unique benefits
that they offer. So why might you

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consider choosing a professional trustee over a
family member or friend. There can be

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several compelling reasons. One, expertise
and experience. Professional trustee are often financial

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experts might be attorneys, specialized firms
with extensive experience in managing trust in the

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States and they have a deep understanding
of the legal and financial matters, ensuring

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that your assets are going to be
managed efficiently and accord in accordance with your

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wishes. Another reason could be neutrality
and objectivity. Family dynamics can become complicated

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during trust administration. By appointing a
professional trustee, you are ensuring impartiality in

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decision making, and professional trustees are
going to be required to prioritize the best

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interest of all of the trust beneficiaries
without being swayed, perhaps by personal relationships

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or conflicts of interest. Sometimes that
ends up being an issue when inn a

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state is being settled or a trust
is being settled. If you have a

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family member appointed as a trustee,
sometimes they will be affected in what they're

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doing by how they get along with
the other beneficiaries, or do they have

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any particular conflicts of interests themselves that
can be avoided by having a professional trustee.

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A third reason, how about continuity
and stability. Unlike individual trustees who

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might become incapacitated or might die themselves, a professional trustee service, such as

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perhaps that being offered by your bank
or by your financial organization or a standalone

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trust company, offers continuity and stability. That would be that trust management is

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going to continue in the event of
personal circumstances. Another reason risk management and

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compliance. Professional trustees are well versed
in fiduciary responsibilities, that is, the

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responsibilities that a trustee has in managing
a trust and settling a trust and regulatory

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requirements. They're there to mitigate risks, ensure compliance with the laws, protect

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the assets that are in the trust, and minimizing potential for legal disputes or

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issues. So those are just a
few of the reasons that you might consider

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it. Again, expertise and experience, neutrality and objectivity, continuity and stability,

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risk management and compliance. Now some
might argue, well, yeah,

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but a professional trustee charges a fee, so there's a cost associated with having

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a professional trustee. Well, the
fact of the matter is, in the

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state of Michigan, if you appoint
a family member or a friend to service

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trustee, unless you draft your trust
differently, they too have a right to

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be paid for the services that they
are going to provide you. So even

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a friend or family member who is
serving as a trustee has the right to

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be paid. Now, oftentimes people
are concerned at the potential that a professional

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trustee fees though, are going to
be perhaps significantly more than would a family

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member or friend charge. That's something
that obviously you need to have a conversation

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with the professional trustee that you are
considering so that you fully understand how their

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fees are going to be calculated,
what is included in the fee that's being

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charged, so that you can make
an intelligent determination about whether or not you

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want to use that particular professional trustee. Another thing though, that sometimes people

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think, is well, if I
have a professional trustee, I'm basically excluding

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family members entirely in the settling in
the estate. And that doesn't have to

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be the case. In many cases, the professional trustees will work collaboratively with

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your family members. You can even
if you wish, appoint a family member

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as perhaps a co trustee or maybe
a joint trustee, depending upon what arrangements

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are going to be made, where
they will work hand in hand with the

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professional trustee. Again, that's something
that you're going to have to discuss with

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the professional trustee so that you are
sure that they are willing to serve in

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that either co or joint capacity.
In the end, though, the decision

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about using a professional trustee ultimately is
going to depend upon your individual circumstances,

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your preferences, and perhaps and the
complexity of the state. You might have

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a very simple estate that's not going
to require much of a trustee to do,

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and in that case it might not
really make sense the fee that the

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professional is going to charge, or
looking for professional trustees might not make sense

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to you, whereas the more complicated
your estate gets. In that case,

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you might start looking and saying,
will I be better served? Will my

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heirs be better served in having professionals
involved in the ultimate settlement of my estate?

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Of course, if we can be
of any assistance to you in helping

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you make a determination about whether or
not you're going to use a professional trustee,

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or perhaps recommendations or suggestions about who
that professional trustee might be, certainly

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a conversation that we can have with
you, and as always, we would

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be honored to have the opportunity to
help you in protecting your loved ones by

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putting together your state plan, amending
a current plan, or assisting you in

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settling your state. Simply head on
over to the website Doyle LAWPC dot com.

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There you're going to find information on
how to schedule a virtual consultation either

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use boom or zoom I'm sorry,
or telephone or an in person consultation at

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the current East Lansing office. So
all that information will be available on the

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website. You can actually schedule the
consultations through links that we have to our

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calendars on the website. A reminder
too, that we do have our legal

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store on the website that's designed for
somebody who just needs one document. Maybe

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all you need is a new certificate
of trust. You can go to the

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legal store, fill out the information
at the Legal Store, and if everything

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is in order, we will prepare
and email you that document for you to

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print out and execute. So again
I encourage you head over to DOILOWPC dot

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com for more information and to schedule
your consultation. Well, I think that's

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going to be it for today's show
though. As always, though, if

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you have a comment about the program, perhaps a topic that you'd like to

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have me answer discuss, or questions
that you'd like to have answered, a

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couple options. One is simply shoot
me an email that would be tomat Tuesday

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with Tom dot com. The other
option that is now available at our new

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Well, thanks again, though for
spending some of your time with us

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today. I hope that you have
an awesome day and an awesome week in

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Michigan. Stay safe. Tuesday with
Tom has been brought to you by the

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estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how we can help you

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with your estate plan or with settling
a loved one's estate, please call us

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today at five one seven three two
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