The Beneficiary: “Charlotte” is a 55-year-old divorced, single mom of two teenagers who lives on the West Coast and loves her job as a project manager. Her beloved father, who’d long retired and moved with Charlotte’s equally-beloved stepmother from Canada to their second home in Ireland, became a widower in 2018 and himself passed at the beginning of the pandemic. Charlotte’s father didn’t either make her or her brother the executor of his will, in hopes of sparing them any extra hassle. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
The Inheritance: With good relationships enjoyed between all parties, Charlotte’s inheritance – her half of her father’s estate, which had a total value of about $2-million – sounded easy and straightforward. But following a lacklustre Zoom funeral, details revealed the estate to be much more complicated. “He had financial accounts and assets in Canada and Ireland, a Canadian lawyer, accountant and financial adviser, an Irish accountant, a pair of Canadian executors and a pair of Irish executors,” Charlotte said.
Nobody on either side of the pond knew where or how to start – beginning with the death certificate. Here, the luck of the Irish delivered a terribly-timed cyber attack on the Irish Institute of Public Health. “We couldn’t get a death certificate for eight months,” Charlotte said. Probate took nine more months.
Only then could her father’s house be sorted, packed up and sold – from the other side of the world. “Neither my brother or I could pack up for two months and just leave, obviously,” said Charlotte, who’s eternally grateful for extended family in Ireland who stepped up to help out. There was an Irish real estate agent and tax to be paid, naturally, at which point Charlotte finally received a cheque … for the Irish half.
How a retired accountant spent his frugal father’s inheritance meaningfully
On this side of the pond, Charlotte next waited patiently for a certificate of clearance – proving all taxes, interest and anything owed has been paid – from the Canadian Revenue Agency, which was filed incorrectly by the Irish. “Canadian assets controlled by an Irish estate further delayed filing taxes on both sides,” Charlotte said, “and our government doesn’t have a lot of personnel who are literate in two countries’ laws, so this took another year.” And just when the certificate was mailed, another surprise: the Canada Post mail strike slowed its arrival yet again. “As a project manager, the whole experience was infuriating.”
What she learned: As a beneficiary, but not an executor, Charlotte spent four-and-a-half long years in frustrating limbo. “Dad didn’t want to burden us with the responsibility of being executors, but it was far more difficult to not be executors. It didn’t feel ethical to get too involved, so I asked questions every few months but basically I was waiting … and waiting … and waiting,” said Charlotte, who vowed never to put her kids in a similar situation. “My kids aren’t even of age yet but they already know they’re going to be my executors and also I’m deliberately setting up my estate to make things as easy as possible for them.”
Among the information her children/executors have, whether they want it or not: The location of her will, names and contact information for my bank and financial institution, logins and passwords for e-mail and bank accounts as necessary. “We talk about it so often now that it’s not a morbid conversation any more. It’s nothing to be weird or sad about.”
What she did with it: Once Charlotte finally received the last of her inheritance, before she did anything else and since Ireland doesn’t automatically pay executors like Canada does, she gifted the Irish executors the equivalent of what the Canadians received for all their hard work. Next, she paid off her car loan and her home mortgage. Each of Charlotte and her two children chose a charity to donate to in her father’s memory. Then she gifted herself “1 per cent to play with however she wants.”
“I don’t want or need a lot of stuff,” she explains, “but I’ll spend to make memories.” Since both kids’ RESPs are already fully-funded and they’ll be off to school soon enough, Charlotte decided to let each child (and her mother) choose their dream vacation. Three bucket-list trips later, Charlotte’s now seriously contemplating retirement to travel even more–a full decade before the conventional 65. “This inheritance was never my retirement plan, but it means I can implement my plan much earlier…if I want to.” For now, she loves her job enough to stay put for now, but pending the go-ahead from her financial adviser, Charlotte’s Freedom 55 may be impossible to resist.
Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. Have you recently received an inheritance and would like to participate in Inherited? Send us an e-mail.