Reasons to Pass Accounts
In yesterday’s blog, I alluded to the surprise many Estate Trustees, Attorneys for Property and Guardians for Property express when notified of their duties to account. Often, the surprise is mixed with indignation that someone is putting them to that test, and even unwillingness to comply.
There are, however, benefits to passing accounts. The following is a list, by no means exhaustive, of some of those benefits:
1. Unless there has been failure to disclose crucial information or outright fraud, a Judgment passing accounts constitutes almost complete protection from future complaints about the administration during the period of the accounting.
2. Releases from beneficiaries are cheaper and simpler protection than a passing of accounts, but they leave open risks that a beneficiary may claim not to have understood the Release, or was forced to sign it, or “never really read it”, or did not obtain independent legal advice, and so on.
3. Attorneys, Guardians and Estate Trustees will often be precluded from paying themselves compensation until their accounts are passed (or the beneficiaries consent).
4. A passing of accounts allows the Estate Trustee to know what complaints or concerns beneficiaries may have. There is a risk, I suppose, of waking a sleeping dog by passing accounts. However, I find that in many cases the sleeping dog will wake up anyway: best to know the problems early on in the administration while complaints can be addressed and accomodated, instead of later on, when it may be too late.
Thanks for reading.
Sean Graham
