How do you choose the best Committee?

When two more more people apply to act as Committee over a person, Courts sometimes have trouble determining who the best person is. The Court must choose among several factors in reaching its decision.

Reasons for judgement were recently released in the case Re Struthers, in which the patient had no living children, but had a grandson and a son in-law who both sought to act as Committee.

The Court found that the grandson, an RCMP member, seemed to focus more on preserving the financial assets.

Meanwhile, the son in-law, a retired former RCMP and plastics company employee, admitted that he had made some errors in judgement in using some of his mother in-law’s money, but spent far more time with her than the grandson did.

The Court felt that the son in-law would be wiser with the funds in future, and that he should be named Committee over the patient’s finances and person.

When acting as a Committee, contact with the patient matters. As important as the financial issues are, they are only part of the picture that is the patient’s best interests.

This ad ran in the Richmond News on May 13, 2016.