Is there a way for someone to include in their trust or will a payment to their trustee or the executor for their service? Like leaving a gift or any other way to indicate this?
We do not offer a feature to give a specific gift to an executor or trustee to thank them for their service, in excess of the executor or trustee’s rights to compensate and reimburse themselves from the estate for their service. As a default, states allow an executor or trustee to compensate themselves from the estate’s assets as an expense of administration. Our trust also specifies that the compensation must be “fair,” taking into account that person’s experience, efforts, time spent, and whether they served with others (or delegated their responsibilities). The full paragraph from our revocable trust is below.
The reason Wealth.com does not plan on allowing a gift to be made on top of the executor or trustee’s compensation rights is that these gifts can cause a lot of tension between the beneficiaries of the residuary estate if some of them serve as executor or trustee, and the others do not. It is a frequent cause of strife among the beneficiaries, who may feel that the executor/trustee has over-compensated themselves and reduced their residuary shares. We prefer for executors and trustees to be thanked for their service through the default compensation rules.
Here is an example of a Trustee Compensation language within a Trust document:
The trustor intends for the trust property to benefit the beneficiaries of this Trust Agreement to the greatest extent possible and for a trustee who is serving under this Trust Agreement to be fairly compensated. Unless the trustee waives this right, the trustee (including a trustee who is also a beneficiary) will be reasonably compensated for that trustee’s services, taking into consideration that trustee’s experience, time spent, and efforts, and whether that trustee served with any co-fiduciaries or delegated powers and duties to advisors or agents. In addition, the following rules apply:
Unless the trustee waives this right, a trustee will be reimbursed for reasonable expenses in administering any trust created under this Trust Agreement.
A professional or corporate trustee will be compensated in accordance with that trustee’s schedule of fees that is in effect when the trustee is acting, unless the trustee agrees otherwise with the trustee appointer of that trust.
A trustee may rely on applicable law to determine what is considered reasonable compensation under this paragraph.
Within a standalone Will, the language would be included within the Fiduciary Compensation section of the PDF.