Deciding who to appoint as the Successor Trustee for your Revocable Living Trust can be tough. For a lot of people, there just aren’t many good options among their friends and family members. Either the people close to them aren’t experienced with handling finances, aren’t trustworthy, or can’t do the job for a number of other reasons.

In this situation, it might make sense to consider an institutional fiduciary; a bank, corporation, or other professional whose job it is to serve as your successor trustee. Here are some potential benefits:

• A corporate trustee will likely be equipped to handle all of the demands of managing your trust in-house, without looking to outsiders for help or guidance. Corporate trustees have experts on staff to handle accounting, management, and investment tasks. Compare this to an individual trustee, who might be relatively inexperienced and need to hire several different experts (potentially of varying quality) to help manage your trust.
• A corporate trustee will likely report to a licensing board in addition to the court. This added degree of oversight may make it more likely that your assets will be well-managed. Plus, a corporate trustee is likely to be insured, meaning that if something goes wrong, compensation should be available.
• Having your trust administered by a third party means that your trustee won’t get caught up in family drama. Because a corporate trustee is, almost by definition, neutral, your trust should simply be administered according to its terms, with no bias.

Of course, there are also drawbacks to employing a corporate trustee, the most obvious of which is the fees involved. After all, expert advice and services are not free. Also, having a corporation administer your trust means that the decision-making process might be slower and less flexible than it would be with an individual trustee.

However, if you’re having a hard time choosing a successor trustee from among your friends and family members, a corporate trustee might be worth considering.

The Law Offices of James A. Miller is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.