Neustockimages/iStockPhotography/Getty Images
After Caitlin Walsh Miller’s father died without a will in January 2025, she and her siblings needed to decide who would be appointed administrator of his estate.
Her brother was the obvious choice. She lived in Fredericton, where her father’s home was. But as medical professionals, Walsh-Miller said both brother and sister had a “really heavy burden” of caring for their father, who has dementia. So she volunteered for the job.
“I felt like I was finally able to help the team.” said Ms. Walsh Miller, a freelance journalist from Montreal. before her father died she was his agent Finances and property.
But managing his estate from Quebec came with challenges. While phone calls and paperwork can be handled remotely, banking is a different story. Walsh-Miller said she had trouble getting her father’s bank account open every time she visited the Montreal branch of her father’s bank. New brunswick document recognized.
“I’ve cried at a lot of banks because I’m someone who cries easily, and that seems to attract people,” she said. “You’ve probably already heard that when you act as a power of attorney or executor, very few people are knowledgeable about the law. You’re always explaining yourself.”
Distance increases complexity for Canadians caring for aging parents from afar
Canadian executor of Parental estates often have the obligation to cope with a significant administrative burden while grieving a devastating loss. fulfill those obligations from other states or countries; Additional hurdles exist, from dealing with new legal situations to more practical considerations such as cleaning out your parents’ home.
Alisha Tse, a wealth advisor at Richardson Wealth Ltd. in Vancouver, said people underestimate how immediately “operational and hands-on” the role is.
An executor’s duties include securing a loved one’s home and valuables, maintaining property insurance, and arranging for pets. “This is an urgent and pressing responsibility,” Tse says, but it’s even more complicated for those coming from other provinces or countries.
Leanne Kaufman, president and CEO of RBC Royal Trust in Toronto, said a common consideration for interprovincial executors is the tax residence of the estate.
For tax purposes, someone’s property is considered a trust, and trusts are taxed based on where the trustee’s “heart and operations” are, she said. If a parent’s estate is administered by an adult child in another state with a higher tax rate, the estate may end up being taxed at that higher rate.
What an 85-year-old and 7-time executor can tell us about will execution
Kaufman said he was traveling to his parents’ home. The state makes estate decisions While this can help, it can be costly, especially for complex properties that can take time to resolve.
Different provinces have different probate rules and fees, said Amy Dietz Graham, senior wealth advisor and portfolio manager at National Bank Financial Wealth Management in Toronto. Additionally, if your parents own real estate or assets in multiple states, they will be subject to probate in all of those states.
Some states may also require out-of-state executors to post an indemnity bond. This is essentially insurance to protect your heirs and beneficiaries from the possibility of your executor mismanaging your estate. but it is possible influence the executor It’s an accomplishment, Ms. Kaufman said.
Beyond the hurdles faced by estate executors in other states, people with parents in other countries must navigate a different legal system, perhaps in a different language.
Rohini Mukherji, a Toronto-based public relations professional, had to manage her father’s estate after his death in Bangalore, India, three and a half years ago. India’s legal system makes it rather easy for someone to transfer assets to their children More than for a spouse, Mukherji said. This is why the will left the property to the eldest son, Mukherji, even though his father wanted to leave the house to his mother.
OPINION: Follow this checklist when dealing with your loved one’s property
She first had to produce documents to prove that her father was of sound mind when he wrote the will, and then spent several days in a Kolkata court to transfer the property to her mother, all of which turned out to be more complicated than expected. But Mukherji said “I was glad the process had slowed down this much” because it gave her time and space to grieve.
Rahul Sharma, a partner at Fasken Martineau Dumoulin in Toronto, who focuses on cross-border and international trust and estate planning, said if a parent from another country names a child in Canada as executor, the estate could be subject to Canadian taxes.
“This is most commonly seen in cases where parents are residents of countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States and have named a Canadian child as executor of assets that are located entirely outside of Canada,” Sharma said.
“In many cases, people miss out on good planning opportunities and bring significant assets into the Canadian tax system that should remain outside of the Canadian tax system,” he said.
There are also smaller challenges when dealing with a parent’s property overseas, he says. These include issues at home, issues at city hall, and even the types of identification documents accepted by various governments.
Our experts tell us the best way to discuss the difficult task of planning for a loved one’s aging.
Tse said it may make more sense to hire a corporate enforcer for those whose preferred enforcer lives in another state or country. Corporate executors typically charge 3.5 to 4 percent of the property value, she said.
In that situation, If there are multiple siblings, especially if only one is local, dividing executor duties can help manage the burden that may fall disproportionately on one person, Kaufman said.
“The planning process does not always fully recognize the impact on relationships for those left behind,” she says.
Liz Brice and her two brothers shared the care of their father, who lived in Whitehorse, and jointly managed his estate after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Bryce and her sister both live in Toronto, and her brother, who is the executor of her father’s will, lives in Vancouver.
Her father was renting the house, so the three of them took turns flying out to empty the house for the extra months left on the rental period, and they also shared other duties. They recently used the same strategy to manage their uncle’s estate in Bracebridge, Ont., after his death in November. Since his wife has passed away, he continues to help the remaining family members handle inheritance-related tasks.
“We split up as much as we could as a team, canceling hydro and collecting mail, things like that,” Bryce said.
Walsh-Miller said she and her brother had originally considered becoming joint administrators of their father’s estate, but that would have required both of them to sign all the documents, adding unnecessary time and administrative work.
However, she is dealing with her father’s estate, which she says has been complicated by his lack of organization, and is grateful that she and her siblings are working together to address the issue. “We’re all on the same page, which makes things easier.”
#Canadian #loses #parent #afar #managing #estate #complicated