An executor, absent consent or a court order, must not make any distribution of estate assets to beneficiaries of a will for six months following the grant of probate. This is a statutory prohibition in section 12 of the Wills Variation Act (the “WVA”). There is a serious risk to executors who make early distribution.
This six month prohibition is intended to balance ...
Many parents, late in life, come to realize that one or more of their children are not people they like or respect. There are usually a myriad of reasons for this, the cause of which depends on who you ask. But for the parent, their disappointment often leads them to consider making no provision for that child in their will. To disinherit a child, often in favour of others, is ...
People are often asked, and frequently agree, to act as the executor of another’s estate. This decision is generally made without an appreciation of what the executor’s role really is, particularly where there is a dispute over the Will. Ordinarily, an executor is supposed to preserve the estate’s assets, pay the debts and distribute the balance to the beneficiaries ...
Mutual wills are a common estate planning tool. Typically, a couple agrees to leave all or most of their estate to the surviving spouse, who then agrees to provide irrevocable gifts over to children. Mutual wills are premised on an agreement between the spouses that following the death of one of them, the other won’t change their will to defeat their current joint intention. ...
Earlier this year, I wrote a short blog on the right of step-children to claim an inheritance from a step-parent or step-grandparents. The upshot was that, absent a specific bequest in the will, step-children do not have a right of inheritance from a step-parent. This conclusion was recently made even more forcefully by the B.C. Court of Appeal in the decision Peri v ...
If Cinderella had not married a prince, she might have cared a bit more about her legal status as a stepchild to her evil stepmother. It is common ground that the relationships between stepparents and stepchildren can be difficult. Vince Dixon of the Chicago Tribune recently provided sage guidance on how to mitigate some of those potential problems. Communication is ...
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