The Wealth & Wisdom Blog

Large language models (“LLMs”) have become increasing useful.  But there is still hope for humans.  According to MIT Finance Professor Andrew Lo, LLMs are not suitable for providing financial advice because “they are the digital equivalent of sociopaths—smooth, persuasive, and devoid of empathy.”¹ Clients appointing key legal decision-makers as part of their estate plan (“fiduciaries”) would be wise to avoid naming sociopaths, whether human or digital.  In this month’s update, I provide a summary of the fiduciary roles that generally comprise a comprehensive estate plan, and a list of the human attributes to look for in naming a fiduciary.

Fiduciary Roles

Universal Fiduciary Roles. Every adult must fill three fiduciary roles, as follows:

• Financial Power of Attorney: The person named under your power of attorney, called the attorney-in-fact, has the legal authority to make financial decisions for you during your lifetime.
• Health Care: Your health care agent has the legal authority to make health care decisions if you cannot make your own.
• Personal Representative/Executor: Your personal representative implements your directions following death.²

Additional Fiduciary Roles. Your unique circumstances may require you to fill the following two additional fiduciary roles:

• Guardians: A guardian(s) would make parenting decisions if you and your spouse both die while your children are minors.
• Trustee: A trustee would manage any ongoing testamentary trusts established for your children or other named beneficiaries.

Attributes of an Appropriate Fiduciary

I encourage our clients to prioritize the following attributes when choosing a fiduciary:

• Duty. Your fiduciary must look to achieve your planning objectives, even at the expense of their own personal interests, and even if they personally disagree with your directions. An ideal fiduciary would have a history of making decisions for others at personal expense.    
• Value Alignment. A fiduciary must be able to understand your beliefs and values and act upon them in a particular human context, such as health care decisions or trust distributions for a child or grandchild.  If the candidate has not personally addressed similar issues in her own life (e.g., financial management decisions, addressed professional setbacks, etc.), she won’t have the emotional intelligence necessary to make judgement calls.
• Capability. A fiduciary may not be able to complete a job because of age or health.  Others might lack the experience necessary to address multi-faceted decisions.  In a fiduciary context, the importance of age and experience is relative to the task to be completed.³
• Advisors. Identify who the fiduciary consults on personal and professional matters. When you chose a fiduciary, you are effectively choosing that fiduciary’s personal and professional advisors.
• Humility. Relatedly, an ideal fiduciary will have some healthy dose of humility so that the fiduciary has a clear understanding of the extent of her knowledge. The worst fiduciaries are those who act like the sociopathic chatbots, believing that they can do it all themselves.
• Diligence and Advocacy. Your fiduciary must be diligent about gathering information about your situation and making decisions on a timely basis. Wen appropriate, a fiduciary stridently advocates on your behalf.
• Proximity. In some instances, a fiduciary must be physically proximate to the client (such as in health care decisions) or the client’s assets (e.g., as trustee of a business or real estate asset).
• Cost. A professional fiduciary may be able to competently execute the necessary tasks, but at a higher cost to you or your trust.  You should weigh whether the additional cost of a professional

Many of our clients and named fiduciaries utilize LLMs to gather information and prepare statements of intent or family vision statements.  But until such time as LLMs and chatbots are endowed with a soul, it’s best to stay the course and name a fellow human being as a fiduciary.

¹ Why Chatbots Can’t Be Trusted for Financial Advice: They’re Sociopaths, by Peter Coy.  Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2026.

² If a client has established a revocable trust, then the administration of that trust following death would be completed by the person or entity named as successor trustee of the revocable trust. In this context, I am using the term “personal representative” more broadly to mean the fiduciary responsible for administering assets, whether in an estate or a revocable trusts.

³ A guardian could conceivably serve for as many as 18 years; a trustee even longer. In contrast, a personal representative’s role is often of brief duration.