We were counsel in Bergler v. Odenthal 2020 BCCA 175.  I discussed this recent decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal in a post found here.

I recently provided my commentary on the case in the July 2020 edition of Take Five, a monthly publication highlighting the most interesting civil cases emerging from the B.C. Court of Appeal.  Here is an excerpt from my comments:

When a deceased person leaves a will, a disappointed beneficiary may have a variety of available claims, including challenges to the validity of the will and, of course, wills variation claims. When a deceased person dies intestate, it may seem at first blush that a disappointed beneficiary has no recourse, as the legislation sets out a non-discretionary scheme as to how the estate is to be distributed.

However, in Bergler v. Odenthal 2020 BCCA 175, there was a remedy available: the secret trust.

As the Court of Appeal notes, secret trusts are “rarely encountered today” and this will likely continue to be the case. There is considerable risk in relying upon a secret trust to carry out your testamentary intentions. The person who would otherwise receive your assets (whether by will or intestacy) will directly benefit from denying the existence of a trust after your death Or, as happened in Bergler, the trustee make seek to add a “clarification” to the terms of the trust, which would postpone his obligation to distribute the assets until his own death.

You can read my comments in their entirety in this month’s issue of Take Five, and the discussion was also featured in an article on Slaw, Canada’s online legal magazine, which can be found here.