We have an appt tomorrow to get our wills done with a lawyer. They said it takes about an hour for both.
What should we be prepared for? What type of information should we bring with us? Do we need bank account numbers, insurance policy numbers, contact information for the guardians we’ve named for our daughter, etc? Do we need to know what we want done with our remains?
I guess I’m wondering how specific a will has to be? Ours will be quite simple - it’s just me, my husband and my daughter.
Drafting a basic will includes setting out who will take care of things once you die (and who will step in if that person is not able to do the job), who will get specific items, and how whatever is left is given out. It will also deal with trusts for youngsters or disabled people.
A good lawyer will discuss the ins and outs of wills in detail with you, and will also go over powers of attorney for when you are alive but not thinking straight and need someone to handle your financial or medical affairs.
A good lawyer will also help you plan your affairs so as to reduce the difficulties and expense caused by the probate process and by taxes (depending on the laws in your jurisdiction), and so as to minimize the possibility of estate litigation. To do this, your lawyer will need to know the size and nature of your assets and debts – in particular, the lawyer will need to know what is solely owned, what is jointly owned, and what has a named/designated beneficiary.
Finally, a good lawyer will explain how you can help avoid estate litigation by reminding you to take care to document the nature of any transfers that you hve made or may make in the coming years (i.e. is an asset that you transfer to someone a payment, a gift, a loan, or a trust transfer).
Bank account numbers? No, but it is very imporant to know which accounts are joint and which accounts are sole (Joint accounts usually would not be covered by your will and would simply remain in the ownership of the other joint owner who out-lived you, but the law in this area is changing, so it is best to clarify things in your will just so that everyone will know whether the joint holding was or was not “joint with right of survivorship”).
Insurance policy numbers? No, but is is very imporant to know if a policy has a person named as the beneficiary. If there is a named/designated beneficiary, then the policy will be paid out to that person and will not be covered by your will. If there is not a named/designated beneficiary, then the policy will be paid out to your estate and will be covered by your will. Note that the greater the value of your estate, the more your estate may have to pay to the government for probate. The same goes for RRSPs – they will not be part of your estate if there is a designated beneficiary, but they will be part of your estate if there is not a desiganated beneficiary.
(Probating a will, a.k.a. applying for letters of administration with a will, involves your executor/estate trustee getting the court to give its good housekeeping seal of approval to your will, so that banks and land registrars will feel comfortable in doing what the executor/trustee tells them. The court filing fee for probate in B.C. is on a sliding scale that can approach 1.4% of the value of your estate, so folks often might wish to consider how much of their holdings they want to have covered by their will and attracting the probate fee, verses how much of their holdings they want kept outside of their estate and not covered by their will or attracting probate fees, e.g. life insurance with a designated beneficiary.)
Contact information concerning your daughter’s guardians? Strictly speaking it is not necessary, but it is one heck of a good idea to provide contact informaton concerning anyone mentioned anywehre in your will or powers of attorney. The lawyer probably will not type this up in the documents, but will keep it in the file along with your will and the lawyer’s notes. If the provincial estates registrar keeps your will, you will need to provide contact information concerning your executor/estate trustee. (Note that your executor/estate trustee does not have to be the the same person a the guardian of your daughter.)
Remains? You can leave that up to your executor, or you can tell your executor what you would like done for your funeral and done with your remains. If you wish, you can also set out if you would like your organs donated for medical and/or research purposes.
On a related note, if you end up doing a representation agreement, a.k.a.power of attorney for personal care, a.k.a. living will, you will need to give instructions that set out whether or not you wish to be kept out of an institution as long as is reasonable, whether or not you wish to be kept alive by heroic measures when there is no reasonable probability of recovery, and whether or not you wish to be medicated for severe pain if there is not reasonable probability of recovery even if such medication may shorten your life.
The way I understand it, bank accounts will generally pass outside of probate. Generally you specify a beneficiary and often a secondary beneficiary when you open the account. This is usually a good thing, as the beneficiary has immediate access to the money. However, you should know who the beneficiary is and keep it up to date. You don’t want the account going to your ex wife.
Keep in mind that IANAL. Just a moke on the interweb.
Althought not necessary for a will or powers of attorney, it is a good idea to keep your trustee informed of the particulars of all your assets and debts, including institution names and account numbers, so that when the time comes your trustee will not miss anything.
That’s not how it works where the OP resides.
Wow Muffin - thanks for all the info!
We have a joint bank account and two separate ones. We will have to check who is the beneficiary of those two accounts - thanks for the heads up.
I am the beneficiary on his insurance, RSPs, investments, etc, and he is mine. Interesting to know about the probate fees - thank you!
How great to have province-specific info on here - you rock!
The joint acount will probably go to the survivor without passing into the estate, but best to clarify that in the will.
Each sole account will probably go into the respective estate. Bank accounts in BC usually do not have beneficiaries.
The life insurance and RRSPs will probably not go into the estate provided that beneficiaries are listed on those investments.
As far as your other investments go, it would depend on whether or not they had designated beneficiaries.