Florida Estate Planners Acting as Fiduciaries

This article talks about the Florida bar and how it might attempt to tighten professional responsibility laws as they relate to estate planners.  The problem in a nutshell:

Florida Supreme Court rules prohibit lawyers from being named as beneficiaries in the wills they draft for clients. But nothing stops them from being designated as personal representative or trustee. As the personal representative or trustee, an attorney stands to earn significant fees.

Illinois attorneys also aren't prohibited from being designated as a fiduciary, but the stakes are higher in Florida because of the state's ridiculous fee schedule for personal representatives (Florida's term for an executor or administrator). 

Florida law offers a sliding scale for fees of personal representatives -- ranging from 3 percent of the first $1 million in probate estate assets to 1.5 percent of everything above $10 million. The fee can rise to 6 percent if a lawyer agrees to serve as both a personal representative and counsel to the estate, according to trust and estate lawyers.

My own feeling -- which I've discussed before, here -- is that I would prefer not to act as a fiduciary for my clients, and will do so only if the client (1) initiates the request, (2) doesn't really have other options and (3) understands why it might be a bad idea.

From a client perspective, I'd think about this:

What time is it when your estate planning attorney asks to be appointed as trustee or executor in your documents?

Time to find a new estate planning attorney.