An Alberta centenarian has gone loud on a legal battle over her late husband’s $40-million estate.
Steve McEachern was an Edmonton Rotarian for 45 years. He left his estate to The Rotary Foundation Canada.
Now his widow, Mary McEachern, says her husband’s final wishes changed before his death in October 2020, but the retirement of his lawyer and the effects of the pandemic prevented him from putting them in writing before his passing. She says Steve wanted the money to be split among 17 charities, Rotary among them.
The estate also left a carve-out designed to allow Mary, now 101, to live the life she was accustomed to until her own passing.
The family has hired a public relations firm, The Adams Agency, which co-ordinated an interview with one of Mary’s nieces, Trish Young. She told the Gazette another niece of Mary’s, Marsha Grimes, lives in St. Albert.
They’ve also created a website detailing Mary’s claim.
“It is a spousal trust, so Mary, now 101, has the right to make changes, but Rotary is refusing to engage in any communication (even ignoring what would have been a $13-million offer),” the firm’s principal, Jenny Adams, wrote in an email. “When Mary dies, they are entitled to every penny. I'll let you connect the dots.”
Young told the Gazette the campaign is meant to pressure Rotary to “do what they are in namesake: They’re a charity.”
Young said it’s been a “very, very stressful” few years for Mary.
“But she’s a fighter and I know that she will never give up because the most important thing for her is to be able to honour the promise that she made to her husband when he was on his deathbed,” she said. “You know, she's spent the last two-and-a-half years of her life (on this), which is not something I would ever wish for anybody, whether they're 100 or whether they're 50 or 40 or 20.”
Inquiries to the Rotary Club of St. Albert were referred to Brian Edwards, governor of Rotary District 5370, which represents St. Albert's two Rotary clubs along with other clubs in Emonton, northern Alberta and parts of northern B.C., Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
Rotarians are no strangers to end-of-life endowments and other donations. But Dean Rohrs, an Ontario-based director of The Rotary Foundation Canada, said this is the first time she’s experienced being at loggerheads in quite this manner.
“We don’t run into these kind of problems – not from our side,” she told the Gazette via Zoom. “This is from the donor side. We’re one of the very, very few organizations that can say we follow the directions of the donor. We are just the fiduciary agents to ensure what they want is delivered.”
The organization argues the dispute is between the family and the wording of the will, not with Rotary, and that they only became aware of it 18 months ago. It is also critical of "misleading headlines" that have appeared in recent weeks, according to a message sent to local Rotary members.
“This is Mrs. McEachern fighting her husband’s will,” she said. “It’s not us.”
She said they’re at an impasse because the family has not responded to their entreaties, and that the process has dragged out as a result of Mary now being on her third legal team. Trish claims the opposite, that it is Rotary that is unresponsive.
Rohrs said the charity has an obligation to handle the funds entrusted to it responsibly. That includes vetting whether there are liens or other concerns attached to the money or the real property that’s part of the estate, which she said the family has not provided. Rotary has described the estate as “complicated.”
Without these accounting questions answered, Rohrs said Rotary can’t in good conscience release the funds to another party.
“It would be solved tomorrow if we had that information … if we had clarity on the assets, if we had clarity on what was happening,” she said. “We do not want to be in the courts. It’s only good governance that you talk on something that is real.”
Rotarians saw Steve as a member of their family, too. He is a member of the Arch Klumph Society, representing at least a quarter-million dollars of lifetime contributions and the society’s “highest recognition,” according to Rohrs.
That means his likeness already hangs with other Society members in a gallery on the 17th floor of Rotary International headquarters in Evaston, Illinois. His end-of-life gift would propel him to the sixth and highest tier of the Society, the $10-million-plus Platinum Foundation Circle.
Inquiries to the Rotary Club of St. Albert were referred to Brian Edwards, governor of Rotary District 5370, which represents more than 60 Rotarians in St. Albert's two Rotary clubs along with other clubs in Edmonton, northern Alberta and parts of northern B.C., Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
Edwards said in another note to Rotarians that Rotary’s “superlative money management” was of “utmost importance” to Steve and that the media attention and "misleading headlines" are taking away from efforts to negotiate a settlement.
“We work extremely hard and I work extremely hard in the area of Rotary Canada that I cover that the integrity of what we do is laid out and clear and that we’re open to any questions anyone wants to raise,” he told the Gazette. “That sort of transparency is a hallmark of who we are.”