Although beneficiaries have a right to compel an accounting from an Estate Trustee, it is not always advisable to do so. The decision of Pochopsky Estate provides an example of such a situation.
Here, practically all of the deceased’s assets passed outside of the estate. Although, there was some concern as to whether a joint account held between the deceased and his sister was an estate asset, subsequent evidence was given to the Estate Trustee, including an affidavit from the bank, indicating that the account was not an estate asset. Accordingly, the Estate Trustee, a friend of the deceased, concluded that there was no money that passed through the estate.
The residuary beneficiaries nevertheless requested that the Estate Trustee proceed against the sister for the joint account and obtain a Certificate of Appointment. In addition, a formal passing of accounts was sought.
The Estate Trustee thought none of these steps were appropriate given the size of the Estate, and indicated that if forced to formally pass his accounts, he would seek his costs from the residuary beneficiaries.
The residuary beneficiaries obtained an ex-parte Order for the Estate Trustee to pass his accounts. Although not mentioned in the decision, for an interesting read on the appropriateness of ex-parte motions, Justice Brown’s decision in Ignagni Estate (Re), is a good one.
On the passing, the Court found that the objections raised by the residuary beneficiaries were ‘ill-founded’, and that they fell into a pattern of aggressively criticizing the Estate Trustee no matter what he did. Given the size of the estate, the Court ordered that the residuary beneficiaries personally pay the costs of the Estate Trustee in the amount of $17,445.60, and that no costs would be payable to these beneficiaries.
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