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Rogelio Gonzalez, CRPC®, CSRIC™
Financial Planner
Prudential Advisors
Pacific Northwest Financial Group
1700 SE Mile Hill Drive, Suite 264
Port Orchard, WA 98366
Phone: 360-919-4271
Email: rogelio.gonzalez@prudential.com
Website: www.prudential.com/advisor/rogelio-gonzalez
September/October 2026
Choosing a Trustee For a Child's Trust
Naming your spouse as trustee provides essential familial insight and continuity, but you must carefully balance these advantages against possible risks. Consider these questions. How well do you and your spouse communicate about finances? Trusts are complex. They require handling investments, taxes, and longterm wealth strategies. If you and your spouse disagree on these issues, naming them as a trustee may cause conflict. Also, consider whether they have the knowledge or experience to handle these tasks.
Does your spouse have the time for this commitment?
Serving as a trustee is demanding. Are they prepared to handle this role with their existing career, family, charitable, and personal obligations? An overloaded trustee may become stressed, leading to poor decisions that could affect your child's financial well-being.Could emotions compromise judgment?
Managing a trust can strain family bonds. Your child might sense favoritism or feel the effects of a parent-trustee's emotional choices. Contrasting parenting styles or values between spouses complicates trust management. Your trustee must act impartially, prioritizing your child's best interests.How strong is your relationship?
Divorce or conflict may impact your spouse's ability to stay impartial as a trustee. What if you disagree about distributions or stop speaking? Consider how this affects your child's trust. Does your spouse share your long-term vision for your child? The trustee must align with your goals for your child's lifestyle and education. Otherwise, their decisions may differ from your intent.Your trusted advisor can guide you through these questions. You may find that appointing a neutral party, such as a professional trustee, another family member, or a close friend, as trustee or co-trustee with your spouse is the best choice.
In 2025, appointing a trusted advisor or professional trustee as co-trustee or executor was the second most popular strategy (56% of respondents) for preventing high-net-worth family conflict— up 13 points from 2024.*
*Source: 2025 Trends in Trust and Estate Planning, wealthmanagement.com.
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Rogelio Gonzalez is a Financial Planner with and offers securities and investment advisory services offered through LPL Enterprise (LPLE), a Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC, and an affiliate of LPL Financial.
"Prudential Advisors" is a brand name for the propriety retail sales channgel of The Prudential Insurance Company of America ("PICA") and its insurance company and other affiliates (collectively "Prudential"). Prudential Advisors financial professionals are licensed insurance agents of Prudential.
Pursuant to a strategic relationship among Prudential, LPLE, and LPL Financial, Prudential Advisors financial professionals provide securities brokerage services and/or investment advice on securities solely as registered persons of LPLE, an affiliate of LPL Financial. These financial professionals are permitted to brand under "Prudential Advisors".
LPLE and LPL Financial are not affiliated with Prudential or Pacific Northwest Financial Group.
Prudential, Prudential Advisors, and the Pacific Northwest Financial Group are not registered as a broker-dealer or investment advisor.
Pacific Northwest Financial Group and LTM Marketing Solutions, LLC are unrelated companies. This publication was prepared for the publication’s provider by LTM Marketing Solutions, LLC, an unrelated third party. Articles are not written or produced by the named representative.
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