Client asked me when he was 94 years old and I felt honored. He died at 96. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Shortly after taking on the responsibility, I read an article in a CPA magazine that talked about how horrible this role is. One thing it said is that each beneficiary will hate you because he/she thinks that he/she should be trustee. This was true.
I had not done this before and the attorney said that he would guide me. I did not realize what this really meant. What it meant is that the attorney pretty much directed every step, because at every step there is liability. You are in a fiduciary position regarding the beneficiaries, and you absolutely must do everything just so. If the beneficiaries don't cooperate, the attorney has to send out a 45 day notice in advance of every decision to protect you from being sued. What a waste of time and money. Lots more examples to be had.
You have to make sure that your liability insurance covers any acts in your role as trustee. Check carefully, and make sure that you specify that you need this coverage at each renewal. You need to generate a specific report in specific court format each year to start a statute of limitations running for how long beneficiaries can sue you. If you generate the report, I don't know if you are preparing some sort of financial statement that triggers audit CPE and peer review requirements. So you have to hire someone.
I had stated up front that I wanted my billing rate, not the "standard reasonable compensation" that they put in the legal documents that winds up being some % of the value of assets. So I got my billing rate, but if I had not specified this, I would have earned much less than my billing rate. I have spoken with others who have always found this to be the case. You start out thinking that this will be pretty straight forward, and then you wind up spending time that you did not expect, and if you are limited to a % of value, then you do not realize your normal billing rate.
That's the short story. I will never do this again.