How Executors and Trustees Protect Families
May 18, 2026 |Patricia Marcin is the author of a monthly guest column appearing in The Suffolk Times and the Riverhead Times Review.
Since you care about your family, it’s important to choose the right people to help them when doing your estate planning. That’s where an executor or trustee comes in.
Although both manage assets and distribute them to beneficiaries, an executor is the person named in your will to carry out your wishes, and the job typically lasts two to three years. A trustee is the person — or bank or trust company — named in a trust agreement to carry out your wishes stated in the trust, and the job usually lasts longer.
Some trusts are revocable; others are irrevocable, meaning they generally cannot be revoked once created. The trustee of a revocable trust functions much like an executor, and the role is similarly temporary. The job of a trustee of an irrevocable trust often lasts much longer. Let’s look at what executors and trustees do.
