Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 2 April 2021.
When Nina is in her late eighties, she visits her solicitor to update her will. She has five children and appoints her eldest children, Adrian and Donna to be her executors. Whilst Nina’s other three children are relatively ‘easy going’, Nina describes Adrian and Donna as highly strung and explains to her solicitor that she would like to appoint them because “they will make trouble if I don’t”.
Her solicitor advises that, it would be unwise to appoint the two children who typically disagree. However, Nina insists and her will is executed a week later.
Years later, Nina passes away peacefully at the age of 93.
During her life, Nina had made it very clear that, she wanted a traditional Italian service in a Catholic church. Unfortunately, her executors disagree on the finer details. After a month of disagreement, Adrian proposes a simple funeral in a local church, with a small group of friends and family. He invites Donna to be involved in its planning. Donna declines and commences proceedings in the Supreme Court.
One month later, Donna and Adrian settle on a funeral service that was similar to the one Adrian had previously proposed. However, the costs of the proceedings remained an issue and Donna was ordered to pay both hers and Adrian’s legal costs personally with the Judge explaining that by refusing Adrian’s reasonable compromise, Donna had adversarially engaged her co-executor unnecessarily.
Nina had been uninterred at the funeral parlor for over two months.
Although the feelings of our loved ones are an important consideration, this illustrates the need to carefully consider who your executors will be and appoint people who you can trust to do the job, not just for the sake keeping them happy.
Thank you to Jamie Visco for his assistance with this column. If YOU would like a particular issue addressed please email Manny at manny.wood@ticliblaxland.com.au or call him on (02) 6648 7487.
