Wills & Estate

Posted on April 4, 2023, by Oliver Hamilton in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

It costs about $475, with taxes, to put in place a valid Power of Attorney (POA) to appoint a trusted person to act for you if were legally unable to manage your affairs and property due to, for example, a car accident or an unforeseen medical condition. When you lose legal capacity, the bank will freeze your assets, even while the housing and stock markets are dropping, until the bank is provided with a valid POA Deed or a court order to appoint someone to administer your affairs and assets. How will your bills be paid?

Posted on February 07, 2023 by Oliver Hamilton in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

A retired mother invited her busy entrepreneur son over for a home-cooked dinner. After dinner, the mother asked, “How goes your new start-up software company”? The son reluctantly explained his latest venture failed. Despite huge sales, it never turned a profit. He sold most of his assets to raise funds for his venture. The son assured his mother, “I’m poor and my creditors can take nothing from me and I’m already onto my next venture that will be a big success”. Not wanting to worry his mother, the son did not mention his main creditor had obtained court judgment against him. He assumed his lack of possessions meant his creditor could not collect on the judgment. The mother bid good night to her son. Worried about his precarious finances, she mused, “I should ensure I leave him something after I’m gone”.

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Nat Olsson in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

Do you know why it is a good idea to have a Power of Attorney document, in addition to a  will, and a representation agreement for medical decisions on your behalf?

You could be out of town when trying to sell real estate, and want to have someone you trust sign the transfer and other documents on your behalf. More importantly, you might lose your mental capacity for making such financial transactions because of dementia, or other debilitating medical conditions. If you do not appoint an attorney you trust to carry out these financial transactions and manage your finances for you, one will need to be appointed by the court.

Estate planning is likely not top of mind for most millennials. Many are focused on starting or growing their careers and families and may believe they have not accumulated enough wealth to make estate planning worthwhile. There is a common misconception that only older adults, or millennials with significant wealth, need a Will. However, there are several reasons why estate planning is still important for the typical millennial. Let’s look at a few examples.

Posted on June 2, 2017 by David Severide in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

In Part 1 we looked at the problem of dealing with Dad’s bills while he is incapacitated, but in Part 2 Dad has unfortunately passed away but now there are even more bills to pay and you have to sell his condo too! So off you go to the bank to sort out Dad’s affairs, and this time you expect it to go smoothly as you have a copy of Dad’s Will in your hand and it says that you are his executor, now more commonly known as a personal representative (and hopefully a beneficiary as well – if you aren’t you should read my next blog on contesting Wills called “My Fair Share”) so you are feeling confident that you will be listened to this time around.

Posted on May 1, 2017 by David Severide in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

PART 1 – WILL-MAKERS PERSPECTIVE

As parents, we expect our children to have the occasional argument or even (gasp!) fight with each other, but most of us have no idea how nasty things can get if a legal war erupts after we are gone because of a B.C. law, known rather innocuously as the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (“WESA”). Within the WESA lies the power to destroy your estate plan and cause significant emotional and financial pain to your family after your death.

Posted on June 14, 2017 by David Severide in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

Under BC law, a Power of Attorney can only be used for legal and financial decision making on behalf of another person (in law we call that person the “donor”). Powers of Attorney have been around for hundreds of years and are well-used documents that are effective for paying bills, selling a residence, signing a contract and similar transactions on behalf of the donor. So far, so good! (For more important information on Powers of Attorney, see my prior blogs).

Posted on June 15, 2017 by David Severide in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

With the ever-increasing role of social media, online data storage, and online shopping in our daily lives, lawyers now have to contemplate how best to “succession plan” for a client’s digital assets on death! Most of us have a variety of online accounts, whether it be for Rewards points, Facebook, LinkedIn, a business website, Netflix, I-cloud or a seemingly endless number of similar digital media that may contain valuable information about us including personal photo albums, private documents and the like. More recently we have been introduced to what are known as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin! Bitcoins are entirely virtual and therefore without the proper legal access and log-in information, any such valuable assets may be unrecoverable by the executor of the Will and never passed on to beneficiaries.

Posted on September 26, 2018 by David Severide in Featured, Wills & Estate Law

The number of families that include furry friends among their members has increased exponentially in recent years, and correspondingly more people are inclined to make some provision in their wills for their pets should the pets outlive them.