When a will is drafted, an executor of the estate is appointed in the will. The executor is essentially assigned to help manage the deceased’s affairs/estate after he or she passes away. The executor may be your lawyer, or alternatively your children, among others. Sometimes, a will-maker appoints co-executors - e.g. two siblings - to determine how the will-maker’s estate ought to be handled. Unfortunately, this can lead to significant challenges once the will-maker passes because the co-executors disagree in how to manage the deceased will-maker’s estate.

It is best to appoint 1 or 3 executors which permits unilateral or majority decision making when it comes to management of the deceased’s Estate.

In a recent Wills & Estate Litigation case: McCulloch v Nociar, 2021 BCSC 1328, the Defendant applied to send the Plaintiff to an independent medical examination (“IME”) with respect to her “alleged allergies, disabilities, and other medical conditions which she alleges requires her to live in specialty housing, in particular a suite (the “Suite”) on property in Surrey, B.C. (the “Property”) owned by the applicant, and to allow access to that Suite to Total Safety Services Inc. to report on the character and conditions which establish it as specialty housing”.

BREAKING NEWS: Plaintiff ordered to an IME in a Wills & Estates Litigation case.