No one to name? How to choose a professional fiduciary or trustee

By Shirley Chia · Last reviewed June 9, 2026

Every checklist for getting your affairs in order says the same things: name an agent under your power of attorney, a trustee for your trust, an executor for your will, a health-care agent for medical decisions. What none of them mention is the quiet assumption underneath all of it — that you have someone to name. A spouse, an adult child, a sibling close enough in age and in trust to hand the keys to. Plenty of people don't. If you have outlived your family, never had children, or simply don't have anyone you would trust with your money and your medical care, the standard advice stops working at the most important step.

There is an answer, and it is to hire the person you can't appoint. A professional fiduciary does for pay what a trusted relative would do for free: manages your money, signs the documents, pays the bills, carries out your wishes, and answers to the law for how they do it. Knowing who these professionals are, what they cost, and how to choose one is the part of solo planning that nobody hands you. Here is the map.

What a professional fiduciary actually does

"Fiduciary" is a legal word for someone who is legally required to act in your interest, not their own — a higher duty than an ordinary contractor or advisor owes you. A professional fiduciary is someone you hire to step into one or more of the roles you would otherwise fill with a family member:

• Agent under your power of attorney — handling money and property if you can't, from paying the mortgage to managing investments and dealing with insurance.
• Trustee — managing the assets you have placed in a trust, both during your life and after you are gone.
• Executor (personal representative) — settling your estate after death: paying debts, filing the final tax return, and distributing what is left.
• Health-care agent — making or carrying out medical decisions when you can't speak for yourself, working from the wishes you wrote down.
• Court-appointed guardian or conservator — the role a judge assigns if you become incapacitated with no valid documents in place. Naming a professional in advance is how you keep the court from picking a stranger.

One professional can hold several of these roles, or you can split them — money to one, health to another. The point is that each role can be filled by someone whose job it is, who is bonded and accountable, instead of left blank for a court to fill later.

Why this matters more when you are solo

When there is a spouse or adult child, the system quietly leans on them. Hospitals call them. State law names them as the default decision-maker if you never signed anything. A judge appoints them first if it ever comes to guardianship. None of that happens automatically for a solo ager. With no documents and no obvious relative, the default is not "nobody" — it is a stranger the court assigns, often a public guardian or a fiduciary you never met, paid out of your own money, with broad authority over where you live and how your money is spent.

The cost of leaving it blank is concrete. Bills go unpaid while you are in the hospital and accounts you alone could touch sit frozen. Decisions about your care get made by someone reading a file instead of someone who knows you. A professional fiduciary, chosen and named ahead of time, is how you replace that default with a plan.

The kinds of professionals you can hire

They are not all the same, and the right fit depends on how much money is involved and what you actually need handled.

• Licensed professional fiduciaries. Several states — California, Arizona, and Nevada among them — license individuals specifically to serve as a fiduciary: agent, trustee, executor, or conservator. They are tested, bonded, and overseen by a state board. In states with no license, the role still exists but is not separately regulated, so your own vetting carries more weight.
• Trust companies and bank trust departments. A corporate trustee is an institution rather than a person, so it never dies, retires, or moves away — useful when you need continuity that lasts for decades. They handle investment management and trust administration, and they usually want a minimum account size to take you on.
• Daily money managers. For the day-to-day — paying bills, balancing accounts, sorting medical statements, catching fraud — a daily money manager handles the routine without the full legal authority of a fiduciary. The American Association of Daily Money Managers keeps a searchable directory of members.
• Elder-law attorneys. Some will serve as your agent, trustee, or executor directly; nearly all can draft the documents that appoint a fiduciary and refer you to one they have worked with and trust.
• Nonprofit and public fiduciaries. Some nonprofit organizations and county public-guardian offices serve people with limited assets or no other options. They are a backstop rather than a first choice, but they are worth knowing exist.

What it costs

Fees vary by role and by who you hire, but the rough shape is predictable. A daily money manager usually charges by the hour, commonly somewhere in the range of $75 to $150, and more in high-cost areas. A licensed professional fiduciary acting as your agent or trustee may bill hourly at a similar or higher rate, or charge a flat fee for defined work. A corporate trustee usually takes a percentage of the assets it manages each year — often roughly 0.5% to 1.5% — with a minimum annual fee that makes small accounts uneconomical. An executor's fee may be set by state law as a percentage of the estate, or billed hourly.

None of that is cheap, and that is the honest trade-off: you are paying for a job a relative might have done for nothing. Weigh it against the alternative. A court-appointed guardian you did not choose also charges fees, also paid out of your money, and you get far less say in exchange. Paying to choose your fiduciary is almost always better than paying to be assigned one.

How to vet one before you sign anything

You are handing this person or institution real power over your money and your care, so treat it like the serious hire it is. Before you name anyone, ask:

• Are you licensed, where licensing exists, and are you bonded and insured?
• How are your fees structured, in writing, and what triggers each one?
• Can you give me references, and may I speak with a current client or their family?
• Who covers your duties if you are sick, traveling, or retire — what is the succession plan?
• How do you keep my money separate from yours and from other clients' funds?
• How often will you give a written account of what you have done, and to whom?
• Have you ever been disciplined by a licensing board or removed by a court?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes free "Managing Someone Else's Money" guides that spell out a fiduciary's legal duties. Reading one shows you what good behavior is supposed to look like, which makes the opposite easier to spot.

Red flags worth walking away from

• No license in a state that requires one, or evasiveness when you ask about regulation.
• Vague or shifting fees, or reluctance to put the terms in writing.
• Any suggestion of mixing your funds with theirs, or "holding" your money in their own account.
• Pressure to decide quickly, to change existing documents in their favor, or to cut out the professionals who already know you.
• No clear answer for what happens if they become unavailable.

How to actually put them in charge

Hiring a fiduciary is not a handshake. It is done through the same documents you would use to name a relative. An elder-law attorney drafts or updates your power of attorney, trust, and will to name the professional as agent, trustee, and executor, and your advance directive to name a health-care agent. A corporate trustee will usually review and formally accept the trust before it is finalized. Name a backup wherever you can, even when the primary is an institution, and tell the professional where your documents, accounts, and key contacts live so they can act without a treasure hunt later.

Start with one role, then build out

You do not have to hand everything to a stranger at once. Many solo agers start with a daily money manager while they are still fully capable — someone who already knows their accounts and routines — and name a licensed fiduciary or a trust company as the agent and trustee who takes over only if capacity slips. Pair that with a geriatric care manager for the health side, and you have assembled, piece by piece, the team a family would have been. It costs money, and it takes a few appointments with an attorney. It also means that if the day comes when you can't manage on your own, the person stepping in is one you chose, vetted, and trust — not one a court assigns after the fact.

If you have not yet sorted out which documents name whom, start with the guide on who can legally make decisions for you, then use the resources directory to find a licensed fiduciary or an elder-law attorney in your state. The solo-aging readiness score will show you where this fits among the other pieces worth handling first.