Too overwhelmed by grief to be an effective executor? See a trust company.

So you've been named the executor, and your loved one has passed away. Though you told your loved one you'd be willing to act as executor, and you still are willing, the shock and grief are making it impossible for a you to handle the role of executor. All you want to do is shut the door and process the overwhelming feelings of loss.

All of the calls and queries of (rightfully) impatient beneficiaries just add to the stress when you're already suffering. Focusing on legal and financial matters may be beyond you even though you know you're supposed to be handling the probate and the accounts and the paperwork.

You're not alone. Not at all. This is more common than you might think.

Recently I received a heartfelt note from a reader of this blog who was in this position and found it impossible to deal with her executrix duties. Here is her note:

"I must admit I am/was a horrible Executrix as I was too depressed to deal with my mom's estate and took a long time (almost a year) before I finally got a lawyer to work on things and probate the will for us and now I am getting anxious over not filing final tax returns on time and dealing with what the repercussions will be. My best advice is for people to see a lawyer asap and relieve some of the stress, because as I found out, waiting causes bigger headaches."

There's no question that waiting causes bigger headaches.

While this reader suggests seeing a lawyer right away, I have another solution that might well be even better. Why not ask a trust company to do the executor work for you? You would still be the executor and have final say on everything, but someone else would do all the legwork. The trust company would do the inventory, write letters, pay bills, sort out and sell the house, apply for probate, deal with all the paperwork, transfer shares and bonds, get appraisals, file the tax returns, and, best of all, communicate with the beneficiaries to let them know what's happening.

Your involvement would be as much or as little as you want it to be. You can have a trust company take over the whole estate or only parts of it.

In addition to having the work taken off your plate, you would have the peace of mind that the work is being done efficiently and correctly by people with experience. You would also be relieved of all of those calls and emails from the beneficiaries trying to get you to hurry up.

While you may not realize it, you would also be saving the estate a lot of money by having it administered by a trust company rather than a lawyer. Trust company fees seem to be a bit of a mystery to the general public, but you can always have a free sit-down session with someone to talk about what kind of help you want, and what that would cost. If you want the trust company to do the whole estate for you, the fee would be based on a percentage of the estate.

You may be wondering whether the estate you have to work on is "big enough" for a trust company. I often hear that comment, as people somehow think that an estate has to be in the millions of dollars to interest a trust company, which isn't the case. An estate can be as small as $250,000 depending on the trust company. When you consider the value of houses these days, most estates will be at least $250,000.

I work at a major trust company and have plenty of materials about trust companies stepping in to help with estates, which I can mail or email on request. I can also give the name, phone and email address of trust officers across Canada who can speak to you one-on-one about how they can assist you with an estate you may be struggling with. Just let me know by comment or email if you want this information.

Have you ever thought "there must be an easier way"? Well, maybe this is the easier way you've been looking for.

Hiring a trust company as agent

In my last few seminars, I have seen an increase in the number of questions I'm being asked about hiring a trust company to help an executor administer an estate. I also noticed a discussion about this today on LinkedIn. So I thought I'd talk about it a bit here to give people a better idea of what the idea actually entails.

The basic idea is that when someone passes away, and their executor feels overwhelmed by the work or the responsibility or the time commitment, they hire a trust company. At Scotia Trust, we call the arrangement "Estate Assist". The executor is still the executor throughout the entire transaction.

When the executor first approaches the trust company, there is a detailed discussion about how much of the work the executor wants the trust company to do. Quite often, the executor wants to hand off the whole thing. For example, a person in Ontario who is the executor for an estate in Alberta might find it impossible to deal with from that distance and might want the trust company to take care of everything.

Other executors need less work done. Sometimes they get part way through the estate themselves and realize they just can't manage it. They hire the trust company to take over from where they left off. The arrangement is flexible and is designed to address the needs of the executor. The fee is also less when the trust company does less work.

As mentioned above, the executor remains the executor. This leads many people to ask "how it works". As an example, the trust company will compile all of the information needed for a grant of probate and arrange for it to be prepared and filed, but it is the executor who still has to sign the paperwork. If the deceased's home has to be sold, the trust company will find a realtor, get appraisals etc but it's up to the executor which offer is accepted.It's an interactive, co-operative arrangement.

Trust officers have a very unusual job, but the ones I know love the challenge of combining legal knowledge with practical solutions.

Remember that it costs nothing to call a trust company to ask what arrangements could be made in your case and to find out the fees. Feel free to call me or any of my fellow Scotiabankers to talk about it.

You can hire a trust co to do the executor's work

Earlier this week I met with a client whose mother passed away 6 months ago. This client (let's call him Joe) and his two siblings are the executors of the estate but those two siblings have apparently decided that Joe is capable of doing the estate work on his own and have more or less refused to do anything. Joe works full time and has a family, so he doesn't have much time to take care of things. Since his mom died, all he has really managed to do is pay for the funeral and gather up a group of bank statements. At the rate he is going, the estate is going to take several years to wrap up, which won't make anyone happy.

Joe came to talk to us because he had told his banker that he was overwhelmed with the estate work and didn't really know what to do even if he had time to do it. The banker knew a cry for help when she heard one, and set up a meeting for Joe and me.

The result of the meeting is that Joe is going to hire Scotiatrust to do the executor's work. He is still going to be the executor but now he doesn't have to do all the legwork himself.

Most people don't know that you can hire a trust company (there are others besides Scotia as well) to do the executor's work. We call it "Estate Assist". The fees are reasonable and you get an experienced staff Trust Officer who can guide you through the process. The trust officers map out a plan for the estate and take care of each step as it comes up. The clients who hire us to do this are often at the end of their rope before they meet us, worried and stressed about trying to do something they have no idea how to do. Sometimes they have made it halfway through the estate before it all fell apart, leaving them hanging. They leave the meeting with us feeling relieved and much more relaxed.

Even many lawyers who deal with estates are unaware that trust companies offer this unique and valuable service. If you (or someone you know) are struggling with looking after the estate of a loved one, feel free to give us a call at one of the phone numbers below to talk about what we can do to help. The consultation costs nothing and you might just find an answer for your problem.


Barrie 705-726-1278 or 1-800-341-8627
Calgary 403-299-3057 or 1-888-495-5245
Edmonton 780-413-4345 or 1-866-413-4399
Halifax 902-420-3888 or 1-888-919-0115
Hamilton 905-317-4803 or 1-800-263-9083
Kingston 613-544-3188
Kitchener 519-743-3379 or 1-866-240-7340
Montreal 514-499-4709 or 1-866-992-0991
Ottawa 613-564-6675 or 1-800-550-9953
Peterborough 705-742-3885 or 1-877-848-7969
Toronto 416-933-2267 or 1-866-240-7340
Vancouver 604-718-7144 or 1-888-723-1122
Victoria 250-953-2602 or 1-800-552-6799
Winnipeg 204-985-3123 or 1-800-567-0215