All About Estates
By Mohena Singh, January 31st, 2025
An important question a person has to answer when planning their estate is, “who will be the estate trustee?”
Sometimes this decision is taken lightly or a person may gravitate towards an obvious answer – “my spouse” or “my children”. What may seem like an easy decision can become costly and delay the administration of the estate if the appropriate person or persons are not chosen.
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently heard a case, Kasanda v. Sartarelli, where two estate trustees brought applications to have the other removed because they could not agree as to how the debts of the estate would be paid. The deceased appointed his children as estate trustees along with his solicitor. In theory, it would be a simple estate to administer as there were only two assets – a rental property and proceeds of a joint account. The rental property was bequeathed to the daughter and the joint account, which was joint with the son, was bequeathed to the son. The issue that caused disagreement between the siblings was how the debts associated with the estate, such as income tax, probate fees, and funeral costs, would be paid as there were limited assets of the estate.
What happens if estate trustees do not get along or cannot agree when making decisions?
Understanding family dynamics is an important factor in the estate planning process. Estate planners should ask their clients whether the chosen individuals would be able to agree on various matters regarding the administration of the estate. The type of decisions estate trustees may be expected to make should also be discussed with the testator, such as how debts will be paid and who will bare the liability of paying them. Individuals should also be mindful of the potential for a conflict of interest where the named estate trustees are also the beneficiaries of the estate. If these discussions were had in this case, it may have prevented the costly delay in the administration of the estate, but more importantly it could have saved a sibling relationship.
Mohena Singh, Associate at Fasken LLP
