Our estate litigation lawyers advise that a very serious obligation of every executor/trustee (and attorneys for property as well) is to maintain accurate records of the monies and assets under their control. Upon request, these records must be made available to beneficiaries, but sometimes estate trustees don’t do their jobs properly or don’t like to be questioned, report our wills dispute lawyers. That is where our estate litigation lawyers come in, and they file an application for the accounts to be passed and scrutinized by a judge — a formal process that creates transparency for all involved. Additionally, under the Trustee Act and the Substitute Decisions Act, when there’s an application to pass accounts, all records can be ordered for trustees or attorneys for property and they must be submitted to the court for an accounting and approval. If something is not right, our estate litigation lawyers will try to trace the problem and try to find a way to repatriate money back into the estate. An emerging area of estates law is accounting for monies and assets spent and used while the deceased was alive and had appointed someone to act as their attorney for property/finances. Our will dispute lawyers note that all too often, those who hold powers of attorney don’t take accounting—or accountability—part of the job seriously that requires them to maintain detailed records and accounting of all monies and assets under their control. If they fail to do that and deplete the estate, then those monies will be traced, and they will need to pay it back. Our estate litigation lawyers have successfully resolved a number of these powers of attorney and passing of accounts disputes for both for executors (estate trustees) and also for beneficiaries of the estate. We first try to use a negotiated settlement approach, escalating to mediation, and if we cannot find a resolution, then we go to Court and seek judgement on the matter.