A 101-year-old Edmonton widow is in a legal battle with the Rotary Foundation Canada over which charities should benefit from her late husband's $40-million estate.

Mary McEachern says the foundation has repeatedly blocked her efforts to honour her husband's final wishes and redistribute his estate to various charities, not the Rotary alone.

"My husband wanted this money to go to many, many deserving charities," McEachern said in an interview with CBC. "But Rotary wants it all, and they're doing every delay tactic they could have done in the past four years to keep it theirs." 

A senior Rotary official says the foundation wants to settle the Court of King's Bench dispute but a lack of financial transparency has delayed negotiations.

The same official says the family's decision to take the case public in a "well-orchestrated media campaign" has unfairly maligned the organization.

A question of charity

Steve McEachern accumulated his wealth in his role as an investment advisor with Investors Group, where he worked for 65 years. A lifelong philanthropist, he served with a number of community boards and charities, including Rotary.

When he wrote his will, he entrusted his entire fortune to the Rotary foundation, with the exception of a trust fund to cover his wife's living expenses.

However, Mary McEachern said her husband of 74 years had a change of heart before his death at the age of 98 on Sept. 10, 2020.

She said he instead wished to distribute his assets to 17 charities, including the Rotary foundation, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS), the Edmonton Humane Society, the Mustard Seed, the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, and the University of Alberta.

In an affidavit, Mary McEachern described how her husband's wishes changed in the final months of his life, as the COVID-19 pandemic made him aware of the growing need among charities closer to home.

She said her husband was unable to make a new will before his death because of public health restrictions and his declining health.

"He advised me of how important it was to him for me to do everything within my power to ensure that his true charitable-giving wishes are carried out."

McEachern said she has offered the Rotary foundation $13 million — as her husband wished — but Rotary has refused to respond.

Four years after Steve McEachern's death, his estate remains untouched, ensnared in the ongoing legal dispute. 

Mary McEachern's application to access the estate through her rights to a spousal trust fund has been met with a string of affidavits seeking to have her removed as executor of the estate and questioning her capacity to manage her husband's fortune.

The case is proceeding as a Family Maintenance and Support claim and is expected to remain adjourned well into the new year.

McEachern and her family launched a public campaign this month — creating a website detailing the case and urging people to contact Rotary in the hopes public pressure will help resolve the dispute.

"It's obvious they're stalling," she said. "All they've been doing is delay tactics, to keep delaying until I die." 

Steve and Mary McEachern were married for more than seven decades. Following Steve's death, Mary began fighting to distribute his fortune to multiple charities. (Submitted by McEachern family)

Court documents show Steve McEachern's will, which includes a provision for a spousal trust, was notarized in November 2019.

Mary McEachern and Concentra Trust were named as personal representatives and co-trustees. Upon Mary's death, the estate would be directed to Rotary for the purpose of supplying fresh water, sanitation and micro-financing in impoverished countries.

The will provides that the trustees have "uncontrolled discretion to encroach upon the capital" of the spousal trust for as long as Mary McEachern lives.

In an affidavit, the lawyer who processed the will said his client did not trust anyone other than his wife to deal with the administration of his estate, but asked that Concentra be named co-executor to help her manage the sizable portfolio.

According to court documents, Concentra told Mary in November 2021 that it could not approve her request to access all the capital within the estate without first applying to the court. That signalled the start of legal proceedings.

We need to do the due diligence to make an informed decision and we do not have the information we need to make that informed decision.​​​​​​

-Dean Rohrs, Rotary Foundation

Dean Rohrs, past-president of Rotary Foundation Canada, said the foundation became aware of the estate dispute the following year.

In an interview Wednesday, Rohrs said a lack of documentation and disclosure on the estate financials has delayed any discussions of a settlement.

She declined to provide details on what paperwork is missing but said taxes and outstanding debts must be accounted for.

"We need to do the due diligence to make an informed decision and we do not have the information we need to make that informed decision," she said.

"This is really a media campaign. It's a pretty well-orchestrated media campaign, which is really out there to distort the truth because we didn't start the litigation."

Rohrs said the family's public campaign has been painful for the foundation and the organization is desperate to see it resolved.

She said the case has done "significant damage" to the foundation and that it has received an influx of abusive emails.

Foundation officials have not met with the family but did not have the opportunity to negotiate before the dispute was taken to the courts, she said.

"Our first aim is to satisfy the intent of the donor, but also to make sure that there is fairness and clarity in the way the funds are then stewarded," Rohrs said. 

"Steve McEachern's wishes will be honoured by Rotary but it needs to be honoured on the right information. 

"The minute that we have that, negotiations will start and we will reach a resolution that will work for both sides of the family — his Rotary family and his own family." 

The couple married in 1946 and lived together until Steve's death. They didn't have children. Throughout their marriage, Mary worked as a nurse but also served as her husband's administrative assistant, helping him to build his business. 

She said she had assured her husband that a lasting charitable legacy would be created in his name. She has since established the McEachern Family Foundation. 

"He was very definite about changing his mind and wanting the money to stay in our part of the world and I agree with him," she said.

"He wanted it to go on long after we're all gone."