Our first inclination, according to trust experts, is to choose an individual. Typically the anointed is a longtime friend, a family member or an attorney, presumably because these are the individuals who understand us—our beliefs, our hopes, our philosophies of life—most thoroughly, and because the length of the relationship often carries with it an implied loyalty. "There’s nothing like someone who knows your children. That personal touch is valuable," says J. Harold Williams of Linscomb & Williams, a financial advisory firm based in Houston. "But it is an enormous burden and most of the time [these trustees] serve without pay."
 Indeed, the many responsibilities a trustee must shoulder—administration, investments, taxes, custody, reporting—require that the individual trustee (unless she or he is remarkably sophisticated) seek outside help. "There is often the misconception that you need to pick someone who is a financial whiz. But that’s not necessary," says Williams. "What you want is judgment you can trust. They just need to know what they don’t know and hire that out."
| Altruism, like alchemy, is an illusory pursuit. In a world
driven by self-interest, we must find the few
honest souls who will put our interests before their own. |
An individual trustee can best serve small trusts of $500,000 to $1 million that cannot justify the fees required for a corporate trustee. An individual trustee makes a logical solution when we expect the trust to last only a few years—until the beneficiaries, for example, reach a certain age, say 21. Jeanni Harrison, an investment advisor at San Diego-based Harrison-deCharon, maintains the size or duration of the trust matters less to the decision process than the complexity and type of assets in it: Managing a portfolio of stocks and bonds is one thing, managing a national real-estate business represents quite another. "But if you really know the person can make the right judgments, choose the individual," Harrison says. "If you want someone with a heart, find a relative; that person can always hire the help that they need."
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