Mistakes to avoid when filing for an estate grant for a will

Everyone loves bloopers--and the higher they are, the harder they fall.

I shouldn’t put myself on a pedestal but surely a lawyer wouldn’t make dumb mistakes when applying for an estate grant, right?

Some folks harbour the misconception lawyers know how to do all things legal. Law school doesn’t teach us how to practice law. We learn as we go. My 25+ years of litigation experience didn’t prepare me for applying for estate grants.

I did have a leg up, though. My first estate came with an extra challenge because it required a court application. My years of litigation and experience making court applications came in handy.

The challenge was an invalid will. The deceased hand-wrote the following on a piece of paper (I have changed the names): “I, John Smith, being of sound mind, give all my belongings to Jane Doe”. The “will” wasn’t properly witnessed.

Fortunately, British Columbia law allows the court to “cure” an invalid will if the court finds the document contains the will-maker’s testamentary intentions. Making that application to the court was right up my alley. Easy peasy!

But there were all sorts of deficiencies with the materials I submitted for the estate grant, most of which could not have been anticipated.

I am going to list all of the deficiencies my estate grant filings have had, most pertaining to this first estate file. I am sharing them to help you avoid them, if you find yourself muddling through this process.

Submission for Estate Grant not including additional documents

The Submission for Estate Grant (form P2), must list all the materials being submitted. Wouldn’t you know, I failed to include the application materials I filed to cure the will within the list.

Name difference requiring explanation

The deceased named the beneficiary in the will without her middle name. In the Submission for Estate Grant form, I included the beneficiary’s middle name. An explanation was required, i.e. confirmation the beneficiary named in the will was the same person referred to in the Submission for Estate Grant.

The answer “none” was missing

The Submission for Estate Grant includes several separate paragraphs where you provide the names of the deceased’s spouse, children, beneficiaries, intestate successors and “citors.” If nobody exists under any of those categories, it’s not sufficient to leave that paragraph blank. You must write the word “none,” or in some other way indicate that nobody fits within that category.

Failed to include a VIN number

I provided the make, model and a value of the deceased’s car in the Affidavit of Assets and Liabilities (form P10). The registry requires that the VIN number of motor vehicles also be included.

Insufficient bank account information

I provided the name of the credit union, account number and account balance at the time of death. But I didn’t provide the location of the credit union branch and didn’t specify the balance included interest to the date of death, which are details the court registry requires.

Unstapled will

With one estate, I unstapled the will to make a copy of it. An unstapled will raises a concern about whether it’s the complete, original will and requires an explanation.

Will search not including an alias

When searching the Wills Registry to ensure there are no more recent wills than the one you are submitting for probate, it’s important to include any “aliases” of the deceased. With one estate, the deceased signed the will using their first initial along with their complete last name. The will search I submitted to the Wills Registry did not include that “alias,” i.e. J. Smith. The deceased didn’t use “J. Smith” for bank accounts, vehicle or property registrations but the fact they signed their will with that alias required that the alias to be searched.

Inconsistent postal code

A data entry error resulted in the deceased’s address in one of the documents having a different postal code than his address in another document.

Bad math

The most embarrassing error was having an incorrect sum totalling the assets in the Affidavit of Assets and Liabilities.

Each of these deficiencies was easy to rectify. The registrar provides a copy of their very detailed checklist along with their instructions of what they require you to do to rectify it. If anyone is interested in a copy of the checklist, let me know and I’ll e-mail it to you.

Deficiencies result in very little delay because once your file gets to the front of the queue to be reviewed by the registrar, it stays there so your rectification materials will be reviewed very quickly.

I am pleased to report that each of these deficiencies were learning experiences that have stuck with me and I am consistently submitting estate grant applications without deficiencies.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.