Should an estate trustee remain neutral in a will dispute between beneficiaries, or actively defend the will?

It depends on what's actually being disputed. Where the challenge is essentially a dispute between beneficiaries over interpretation or distribution, and the estate trustee has no independent stake in the outcome, Ontario courts generally expect the trustee to remain neutral, providing the court with relevant information and documents rather than actively taking sides or funding one beneficiary's position from the estate at the expense of another's.

Where the challenge instead attacks the validity of the will itself — for example, alleging lack of capacity, undue influence, or improper execution — the estate trustee named in that will often does have a legitimate, active role to play in reasonably defending it, since upholding a validly made will is generally understood to serve the interests of the estate as a whole, not just the trustee's personal position. Even then, the trustee's job is to defend the will's validity reasonably, not to fight for a particular distribution outcome as though they were personally a beneficiary with a stake in the result. Because stepping outside the appropriate role can affect an estate trustee's ability to recover costs, or even lead to removal, get advice early about which role fits your specific dispute.