What Fiduciary and Other Roles Must You Name Persons to Serve In? 

In most estate plans, even those for modest estates, positions or roles you may name people to fill include:

• Health care agent. This is a person empowered to access medical information (in a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA Release) and in a health care proxy (or medical power of attorney) and make medical decisions when you cannot do so.
• Financial agent. This is a person charged with making legal, tax and financial decisions for you under a durable power of attorney. This is a role to be served while you are alive but ill or incapacitated. 
• Personal representative (executor). This is a person, appointed under your will, who administers your estate, collects (marshal) assets after you die, pay bills, file tax returns, and distribute assets to heirs or trusts for them. 
• Guardian. This is a person appointed under your will to be responsible for your minor children after you die.
• Trustee. There are potentially several different trustees appointed under even a simple estate plan, so consider some of the different roles. If you use a revocable trust in your estate plan the person named trustee after you (assuming you are named as the initial trustee, which is typical but not done in all cases) is referred to as a “successor trustee.” This person would handle the finances of your trust if you ceased serving as trustee. This might be due to the challenges of aging, health issues, or a traumatic medical event that makes it impractical or impossible for you to continue serving. That may best be filled by a person who will assume responsibility for your affairs. Trustees may also be appointed under your revocable trust for trusts created for your spouse or partner after your death. The persons to be named to those positions may not be the same persons you named to take care of your needs if you were incapacitated. If you are in a second or later marriage you might select someone for these latter roles that would be objective but caring for your current spouse or partner. That may be different than who you name to care for you. Many revocable trusts have a third layer of trusts and trustee positions, namely for the heirs or beneficiaries you designate 

In a more complex plan, for example, a plan including a comprehensive irrevocable trust, it could include an array of positions including:

• Trust protector. This person could have a wide variation of powers. There is no uniformity in terminology in practice so you might have one or more people with similar or different names. This person may be given the power to remove and replace trustees or other rights.
• Appointer. This position doesn’t have a common or accepted name, so in your plan it may be called a different title, or perhaps none. This is a person may be empowered to add a charitable or other beneficiary. This might be done to provide you with potential access to trust assets, add flexibility, address income tax planning opportunities, etc.
• Loan Advisor. This position doesn’t have a common or accepted name, so in your plan it may be called a different title, or perhaps none. This person may be given the power to loan assets from the trust to the person setting up the trust (the settlor or grantor). 
• Investment advisor or trustee. This person may either make investment decisions for the trust or direct the trustee as to what to invest in. This can be bifurcated into various sub-roles to serve whatever your particular needs are. For example, you might name a large institutional trustee for the array of services and depth of resources that it can bring to the administration of your trust. However, the institution, despite its extensive skills may not have the expertise to administer a family business, art collection, or other special asset. So, you might have a role for an investment advisor for marketable securities, a separate one for closely held business interests, and perhaps a third for life insurance. In that way you might tailor roles to fit the specific needs of your plan.

There are many more positions that might be useful to plan and implement a complex trust. Others will be discussed blow. The starting point to decide who to name is to understand each position for which you might need to name a person to serve. When you understand the different roles, it may become clear that you may need different people for various positions. You also want to match the abilities and temperaments of the people to the various roles. Someone to care for a minor child as a guardian may not be the best person to make health care decisions for you. The person that can address financial and investment matters may not be the ideal person to grapple with tough personal decisions for a beneficiary with addiction issues.