Widow, 101, says Rotary Foundation Canada refuses to share husband's $40M fortune

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.

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 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.