Simple errors in your will can land your estate with an unwanted date in court, as a recent Nunavut case shows.
While inaccuracies such as a misidentified beneficiary or misspelled name of a beneficiary are unlikely to interfere with the validity of a will, things can get complicated enough that they will require judicial intervention.
The delay and expense associated with estate litigation is tough to handle under any circumstances, but it can be particularly galling when it’s caused by a simple preventable error.
The Nunavut case involved a polar bear scientist with the territorial government who had devoted his life to marine wildlife and conservation efforts.
After his death in 2021, the court admitted his 2016 will for probate. Although a few minor mathematical errors were overlooked, the judge had a bigger problem with the list of beneficiaries, which provided for about half of the estate to go to the deceased’s mother, around a quarter to a marine conservation charity, and another quarter to another charity, BlueVoice.org.
The only problem: BlueVoice, which had once collected funds to protect dolphins, whales, and other marine animals, no longer existed by the time of the testator’s death. It had been wound up in 2019 following the death of its founder, with the bulk of its assets transferred to a new charity named the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).
Rather than allowing the gift to lapse and cause a partial intestacy, the executors of the Nunavut man’s estate asked a judge to use a legal mechanism known as the cy-près doctrine, which allows the court to amend the terms of a will and save a charitable purpose that is impracticable or impossible to carry out.
The court can only interfere in these cases when it’s clear that the testator had a general charitable intention, rather than providing a gift to a specific institution.
In this case, the court was satisfied that the cy-près doctrine applied and allocated the BlueVoice funds to a trust within AWI that deals specifically with marine animals.
“The fund supports the same causes underpinned by BlueVoice.Org and is much more in keeping with the intention of the testator,” the judge wrote.
Although the deceased would likely approve of the place his money ultimately ended up, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the court approval was not confirmed until almost five years after his death, while the costs of the application likely came out of the estate itself, eating into the share of all beneficiaries.
Charities and corporate entities are among the most frequently mis-identified beneficiaries requiring court intervention, since their official names are either not always obvious or liable to change over time.
An experienced trusts and estates lawyer makes accuracy a priority, and will work with the testator to ensure all intended beneficiaries are correctly identified.
It’s a good idea to check everyone is named correctly at the same time as you revisit your will – which you should be doing every few years, or at least after major life events such as the birth of a child, marriage, divorce, or a major change in net worth.
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