In December, members of the OBA gathered for the final Trusts and Estates Brown Bag Lunch meeting of 2025. As always, attendees shared their experiences and strategies relating to a variety of fascinating and complex questions raised by other participants.
One attendee raised a challenging situation involving a murder-suicide where both spouses died on the same day, without Wills and with no children of their long marriage. There was some difficulty in obtaining cooperation from the lawyer representing the alleged murderer spouse in order to apply for probate, and they were facing some time-sensitive issues. One BBLer shared their experience with a similar situation in which they were able to appoint a neutral estate trustee to act pending further developments in the matter.
Next, participants were asked by one BBLer to share their experiences with private investigators for locating missing beneficiaries. The missing beneficiary in question in the BBLer’s situation may have been homeless or deceased. One attendee suggested the Salvation Army’s investigation branch, noting that they may have had contact with the individual if they had been homeless.
BBLers then briefly shared their recent experiences with timing to obtain a certificate of appointment in various regions of Ontario. Some areas had quite good turnaround times of 4-6 weeks while others were closer to a year.
Next, one attendee shared an interesting anecdote. They were assisting a client in administering the estate of their late sister who had been a lawyer still practicing law as a sole practitioner at the time of her death. The BBLer went through a process with the Law Society of Ontario to step into the shoes of the deceased lawyer in order to sort out the funds remaining in the lawyer’s trust account.
A question was raised about whether a post-death determination as a result of a dependant’s support claim that someone was a common law spouse creates an obligation to amend prior income tax returns if the deceased had filed on the basis that they were single. Participants generally suggested that if the tax position would not materially change, they may simply leave the issue to any future CRA review rather than proactively re-filing historical returns. One BBLer noted that it would not appear that there were any misrepresentations made in this case, given that the spousal determination was made as a result of litigation, and that the statute of limitations on reassessment would eventually apply.
The next topic of discussion concerned an issue involving a potential dependant’s support claim, where the proposed estate trustee who would be defending the claim had requested the claimant’s medical records before litigation had even begun. Participants noted that medical evidence can be relevant to assessing the claimant’s needs and entitlement, though disclosure may be limited in some circumstances.
Finally, attendees shared practical advice on unusual administrative issues, including estates involving hoarding situations. Participants emphasized the importance of engaging specialized cleaning professionals who understand sanitation and environmental requirements, as well as conducting careful searches for important documents or cash that may be hidden among the deceased’s belongings.
The next Brown Bag Lunches will be held on May 19 and June 16, 2026. If you are interested in attending, please contact the moderator, Rebecca Kennedy at rkennedy@agbllp.com, for Zoom information.
Any article or other information or content expressed or made available in this Section is that of the respective author(s) and not of the OBA.