Co-Executors? Yay or Nay?

Naming all your kids as co-executors? Be careful. In this clip, Dave and Leanne unpack why co-executors can spark serious conflict if family dynamics aren’t right.

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Do you believe in co-executors, there’s so many qualities demanded of an executor that may be teaming up two or three, brings those to the table, but also the burden is then shared among more people.

But there are also challenges with that. Walk us through your thoughts there.

Again, you know, it depends on who the co-executors are. Do they get along back to the, do I name all three kids or just one? Okay. Do your three kids get along. Or can they not make a decision together to save their lives? How do you expect them to do this together? I think co-executors can be a good idea.

You know, when we, we act, when we act as corporate executor at royal trust, we do often have co-executors. And that’s because, um, the person that was writing the will wanted that sort of personal touch and we’re there for the administrative side of things. So if you can share the, the weight that way, um, share the burden as it were.

Um, maybe somebody’s got more strengths in one side or is local and the other has other strengths and can do a certain amount of it at the distance and, and that’s how they divide the duties. But they really do need to be able to get along. I mean, you don’t want executors fighting amongst themselves because that’s just gonna lead to litigation.

How do you get around the fact that if, let’s say you have two, they may not agree on some very significant matter. Is there language that can be crafted that says, Hey, if you can’t come to an agreement, then this person, their opinion is going to be the one that holds sway.

Yeah, you can, you can put that kind of language in there. Um, you know, two can be tricky. If you think they’re not going to get along, you might want three and have majority rule, um, that that might be a little safer. Um, but yeah, you can put language in that says, you know, the final decision shall be made or someone gets a veto, or whatever the case may be.

But if you’re gonna do that, then that might not set those executors up for success either, because now the other executors along for the ride and having to do the work and get the liability, but at the end, their decision doesn’t really count. So, I mean, you gotta think through the fam, think through the family dynamics or whatever the dynamics are there too.

Just listening to you talk about all these pitfalls. I think it’s so important not to die.

Well, it’s one strategy.

Yeah cause when you die, things can really hit the fan here.