Is your spouse named as your executor? Uh-oh...

Who would you want to be executor of your will?

If you named your spouse or child – keep thinking. Those are common choices that often result in unhappy endings. Wealth Advisor, Norman M. Boone, says choosing the wrong person can ruin your estate – and family relationships. Here are the estate traps to avoid:

• Not naming an executor or naming children can be problematic – even with small estates. Grown children are likely to disagree over household possessions. They may end up resenting each other or incurring big legal fees to settle it all.

• Your better half isn’t always the better choice. A surviving spouse is often too distraught to deal with managing the details of an estate. And if they don’t have financial experience, they could make some costly mistakes.

So who should you choose? The best executor is a trusted, levelheaded and fair-minded sibling or family friend. The next best choice is a bank or trust company. Another good option is to choose co-executors. Naming a financial person or institution along with a spouse can help spare potential hurt feelings.