Dear Bastiaan,
What I do is first sole the putter flat on the surface. This positions the handle in a certain way in space. I then "bring my body" to the handle so that my hands can attach to the handle without disturbing the flatness of the sole on the surface.
This is a method that accepts whatever putter design is given to me. The hands will not always hang perfectly down -- the putter design is not really custom fitted to your body and setup. It is only when the putter is custom fit to your chosen setup and body that the putter sole rests flat when the arms and hands are hanging in your chosen fashion.
When you buy a putter without getting fit to your setup and body first, the chances that the putter will sit flat when you hang your arms and hands in your chosen way are not very high.
So until you get a putter that is custom fitted to your setup and body, I suggest that you just accept the putter you have and sole it flat first, and then bring your body to the handle and adopt your grip as best you can without changing the flatness of the sole.
By "bring your body to the handle," I mean walking closer to the handle until your hanging arms and hands get as close to adoption of your grip on the handle as possible. The rest of the way is closed by wrist angle in reaching with the hands out to the handle while the forearms stay still. The end result is that the arms are hanging pretty well, especially from shoulders to elbows, and only the wrists are angled out a bit more than they would be hanging inertly. The feet are not crowding the putter head and neither are the shoulders. So long as you putt from the shoulders with dead hands, it doesn't matter all that much.
Ultimately, a custom fitting of what your setup and body requires is needed.
If in your specific case the putter WILL NOT present the handle in a vertical plane when the putter head is soled flatly on the ground, or the putter head simply cannot be soled flatly on the ground, then I would suggest tossing that putter in the nearest bog. The putter's center of gravity does not necessarily have to coincide with the line of the shaft and handle in the putter head, but the handle really needs to sit in a vertical plane of the body defined by slicing your body down the middle so that the knife divides your nose and sternum and crotch in the middle into left and right halves.
The fundamental relationship is between the golfer's body and the handle, not the golfer and the putter head. If you have a good symmetric relationship of a square body to the putter handle and move the shoulders, the shoulder motion is transferred to the putter head without any consideration of what the configuration of body parts and putter may be between the shoulders and the putter head. By soling the putter head flat to the surface first and then melding your setup to the handle as well as the putter design permits, the putter loft will be simply the degree designed in and the face will not especially tilt more than designed. Ball position needs to be ahead of the bottom of the stroke, and usually the putter face is also at the bottom of the stroke (when the hosel enters the putter head near the front of the putter head close to the top edge of the face). But some putter designs have the hosel bent near the putter head or entering the putter head well back of the putter face. In these cases, the body will setup symmetrically to the bottom of the stroke, but the putter face will be ahead or forward of that bottom and the ball position will have to be ahead of the putter face. Using putters without custom fitting means working from the putter into the body. Using custom fit putters means working from the body out to the ball.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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