Many parents with more than one child find it difficult to choose one to administer their estate. Sometimes they don’t want to offend a child. Sometimes it’s truly hard to choose. Often their solution is to ask their attorney to appoint both children as co-executors. While this may appease a parent’s conscience, it is rarely the best solution.
No matter how well you know your children, and no matter how well they get along, it is very unlikely they have always agreed on everything. Should an issue arise on which they disagree, discussion and relations can quickly deteriorate, destroying a family the parents wanted nothing more than to keep together. Litigation to resolve the issues can result in substantial expense that would erode the estate.
The answer is to simply pick one to administer the estate. Its not infrequent that one child excels over the others in understanding economics or dealing with people. That’s the child to pick. If that doesn’t help, pick the oldest child. If you still feel guilty about leaving a child out, we can appoint that child to be a substitute executor to take over in the event the executor is unable to serve for whatever reason. Remember, the attorney representing your estate is always there to make sure the executor properly administers the estate and all of your heirs are treated as you intended. Making every effort in drafting your will to avoid disagreements after you are gone is the best way to keep your family together.
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