Q: I'm a single woman, no children, all my siblings live out of state. Should I appoint a Florida lawyer as a trustee/exec

A: Your brother is already listed on all or almost all of your accounts as well as your other estate planning documents, at minimal he could easily serve as the Trustee related to your Revocable Trust and it should not be that demanding or difficult, worst case scenario he can decline to serve at the time and your second choice can serve or a professional option could be sought at that time. The cost of an attorney of other professional trustee serving as trustee and charging fees can be a substantial cost to the estate. Maybe a better idea will be to review the home if it is your only asset in the Trust and possibly find a better way to hold it as an alternative option. If the Trust only has the property in it and you want it to stay there, then it should not be that big of a deal, your brother could probably easily enough handle matters from afar and limited need to come to Florida. If your brother is listed and serving on the other documents for estate planning, the addition of the trustee role should not be anymore burdensome. You should speak with him directly about serving and if he is not interested, then find and consider alternative options.

A: Mr Gunthert offers sound advice. If you have trust in your brother, that should be the major and overriding consideration as to who should serve. You really do not know who to trust these days so your brother sounds like a great choice.

A: Assuming that you either paid a lawyer to create all these very important and interrelated documents for you, or paid a lawyer to review all these important documents to make sure they do what you intended, that lawyer would be the best choice to appoint as your counsel--because they are already aware of everything.

If my assumptions are wrong, and if you have never used a lawyer to help you, my advice is to hire one immediately.