A few days ago, I received a disturbing email saying that I had no standing to voice my concerns about the passing of accounts (this is a requirement if a trustee decides she wants to be free of liabilities she administered). This lady lawyer quoted me the legislation.
Death of Patient. 24(3) After the death of the patient, the committee must provide the committee's accounts to (a) the executor or administrator of the patient's estate. The committee is the trustee who controls the money.
Sounds reasonable. One person should deal with the passing of accounts, efficiency. That person has to do the heavy lifting that is verifying that every expense is proper. She approves the expenses and relieves the committee of future liability for paying for unnecessary expenses.
The problem is that the administrator had conflicts. Prior to the administrator's appointment, she was the Patient's committee of person/caregiver while he was alive. Obvious conflict. Even a whisper of a conflict should have nullified the administrator's appointment. She should never have been appointed the administrator in the first place. But she was. Another story.
At this juncture, the committee wants distance from the estate, and the administrator is the only one who can test the committee's expenses. The administrator will not test the expenses as the expenses were at her design. Conflict. As a beneficiary, I am not allowed to test anything.
According to the committee, the administrator is happy with the accounts.
And the only person who can sign off on the passing of accounts is the administrator. If she does not sign off, then the court can. And I do not know how that works, how can the court sign off on 500 pages of expenses, it would be impossible to test each item.
So what can a beneficiary do if she suspects the administrator was self-dealing with estate assets? Nothing. She has no legal standing.
