
I’ve covered a lot of ground in the 45 weekly columns published over the last 9 ½ months.
I find myself saying, “I’ve written about that” more and more, when providing advice. On Thursday evening, at a networking event, I covered the subject matter of a handful of separate columns in one casual chat.
I met a lady who moved from Alberta. We introduced ourselves, and when I told her what I do, she brought up concerns about her will.
She’s a single mother of an adult daughter with no grandchildren. She wants her estate to go to her daughter.
She recalled paying $800 to make a will years ago. She hoped not to have to pay that again. (As an aside, that’s more than the going rate today in Kelowna and there’s been years of inflation since she made her will.)
One concern she had was her will has the address where she lived at the time it was made but she’s moved several times since then. I explained the address is simply a tool for identifying her as the person who made the will, not one of the many others with the same name in the world. She’s the one who, at the time the will was made, lived at that address in Calgary.
Changing addresses has no impact on the validity of a will. The old address will continue to serve its purpose.
I wrote about that in my column published on April 21.
Another concern was her will was made in Alberta but she now lives in B.C.. I reassured her an Alberta will is valid in B.C. I wrote about that in a column June 16, debunking widely spread misinformation that out-of-province wills are not valid in BC.
I also shared that her wish for her estate go to her daughter would be followed even if she had no will at all. Default provisions in our laws provide that the estate of a person without a will goes to their children if they don’t have a spouse.That information was in a column July 14.
The topic of how little is required to make a valid will came up. I told her if she was being rolled into a dangerous surgery, she could scrawl, “I want everything to go to my daughter” on a piece of paper and that would be a valid will, as long as she signed it and it was properly witnessed. (I wrote about that March 3.) I tossed in the fact that even if it wasn’t properly signed and witnessed, that scrawled note could be “cured” (validated), as her will as long as it was clear she intendied to set out what she wanted done with her estate. (In a column published Feb. 25).
When I share legal information in a column, it’s is posted on this website and past columns are are available on my columnist page in the opinion under “columnists.”
I wonder if a monthly online seminar might be of value to review the basics and respond to questions. E-mail me at [email protected] if you would be interested.
Please remember, don’t rely on the snippets of information I’ve provided above. Instead, read each of the columns I’ve referenced which are available on my Castanet columnist webpage. If you have any difficulty finding them, let me know and I’ll help you.
As simple as I try to present these legal concepts, there can be a lot of complexity to estate planning. There is no substitute for consulting with qualified professionals to ensure your wishes will be followed and to minimize the cost of passing your wealth to your intended beneficiaries.
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.