Trevor Todd and Jackson Todd have over Sixty combined years of experience in handling contested estates including wills variation proceedings.
s. 155 (1) of WESA states :
The personal representative of a deceased must not distribute the estate of the deceased person in the 210 days following the issue of a representation grant except
a) With the consent of all beneficiaries and intestate successors entitled to the estate, or
b) By order of the court.
The parties agree that the Court’s discretion to allow an interim distribution in circumstances where a wills variation claim exists is guided by the four considerations enumerated in Hecht v Hecht Estate (1991), 1991 CanLII 963 (B.C.C.A.) [Hecht] and David v. Burns Estate, 2016 BCSC 1982 at para. 31:
a) the amount of the benefits sought to be distributed as compared to the value of the estate;
b) the claim of the beneficiaries on the will-maker;
c) the need of the beneficiaries for money; and
d) the consent of the residuary beneficiaries to the payment.
An interim distribution is unlikely to be granted unless the risk that the variation order will encroach upon the funds needed to satisfy the bequest is remote: Hecht; Holmes v. Holmes, 2024 BCSC 737.
