Who should be your family trustee? a guide to selecting a family member to be trustee?

Wall Street Journal writer Anna Prior wrote a great piece in this weekend’s

(January 17-19, 2015) Journal on “Pro or No? Picking a Trustee“. 

• Who should be your family trustee?
• Should you choose a family member like a trust beneficiary or son or daughter?
• Maybe the smart one in the family or the financial wiz?
• Or do you choose a professional bank or trust company to be your family trustee? 
• Here is the link to Anna Prior’s Wall Street Journal article on picking a family trustee:http://www.wsj.com/articles/who-should-you-trust-to-oversee-a-family-trust-1421340638?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLE_Video_second
• Trust litigators in Palm Beach know that just because one of the family members does not like another family member as trustee, does NOT mean that you get to remove that family member trustee.
• Most states have a trust code or set of trust laws and trust cases or legal opinions which set forth the standards, or criteria, for removing a trustee from running a family trust.
• For example, Florida permits trustees to be removed if you can prove that the trustee is “unfit” or the trustee engaged in what Palm Beach trust litigators refer to as, “conflicted transactions” or “acts of self dealing“
• For more about what the trustee’s duties & obligations are, or what a trust beneficiary’s rights are, you might google or Yahoo search “Florida Statutes Chapter 736“.  Enjoy reading Florida’s Trust Code.