When is a special executor necessary?

Heela Donsky Walker, partner at Robins Appleby Barristers and Solicitors in Toronto, often walks her affected clients through different scenarios, including whether multiple wills might be necessary or just appointing executors who have knowledge of certain regions and access to lawyers advising on those jurisdictions. But testators and executors need to reside in the same country – preferably, the same province – or there could be tax consequences. If a Canadian testator appoints an out-of-country executor, “it could have the unintended consequence of making that estate … migrate to that other jurisdiction,” with different tax implications, Ms. Donsky Walker explains.

She recalls the case of a Canadian client who had three children, two living in Canada and one in the U.S. The testator wanted to include his U.S.-resident child as an executor along with the Canadian siblings. Ms. Donsky Walker might advise clients in this situation to include all three children as executors with a minimum Canadian resident majority requirement. Put another way, the two children living in Canada would have majority rule but the child in the U.S. would still be able to participate and be included in all estate matters.

Read more about these insights from Robins Appleby on The Globe and Mail.