Should I Consider Age and Health when Picking an Executor or Personal Representative?
July 31, 2019
Choosing an executor or personal representative of your estate involves important qualities in your candidate, such as trustworthiness and competence, but it is also crucial to evaluate the health of your executor or personal representative. You might be tempted to overlook health concerns if your executor or personal representative candidate fulfills all of your wishes, but if you do not take health into consideration, you might end up outliving your own executor or personal representative.
According to AARP, while evaluating an executor or personal representative candidate, health and age are crucial to help assure you that your executor or personal representative will not pass away before you do. A sibling who suffers from diabetes or heart disease, for instance, may not be a strong bet to survive you, particularly if you are in good health for your age. This is why many people decide on a child or someone of their child’s age to be an executor or personal representative.
Still, this might not be an option for everyone, such as childless couples, people who have no children from any relationship, or individuals with no nieces and nephews. Sometimes it is unavoidable to pick a sibling or a relative about your age. You might also just feel more comfortable about leaving your estate in the hands of a close relative even if he or she is not young.
For people who are intent on naming a peer as an executor or personal representative, it is possible to prevent the problem of being left without an executor or personal representative by naming successor executors or personal representatives. You can ask your current executor or personal representative to come up with successors, or you can name the successors yourself. It is a wise move to do this even if you name a younger executor or personal representatives, since executors or personal representatives of any age can become unavailable due to sudden death, disability, or by moving away.
This article is only written to give information about estate administration and probate topics. It is not a substitute for the advice given by a professional attorney.