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We all know that we need to have someone who will attend to our final earthly wishes upon our deaths. And many of us are taking the proactive step of setting up a living will, which complements our regular will. But while your regular will obviously needs an executor, your living will also needs a person to actually make things happen, if it is to be at all effective in carrying out your wishes in a dire situation. After all, if you should happen to lose the ability to manage the day to day running of your own life, you will have essentially no ability to point to someone and say, “you there! Take care of things while I’m out, will you?” As amusing as it is to fantasize about something of that nature happening (or maybe it isn’t funny at all), the fact is, you may end up temporarily laid up and incapacitated.
Who is going to hold down things while you are away? If you have a person in mind, does this person know about it? Are they responsible, and allied to your interests? These are the three most important parts of choosing a trustee who will do things as you desire they be done. While two our of the three parts are good, the lack of the third component will surely result in a disaster to rival the one which put you down for the count. This is an area which deserves a lot of serious thought on your part.
For one thing, will this person know it if something happens to you? You may have a great friend on the other side of the world, but it could take them days or weeks to find out that something has even happened to you. And they can’t just “pop on by” to make sure that your lawn is mowed, and the other small but important tasks of your life are getting done properly. And if they are the kind of person who is typically drunk, obviously they are a bad trustee. You need to choose very carefully.
