When a loved one passes away unexpectedly, family and friends may be left with no idea who responsible for planning the funeral, or how the deceased would have wanted it to be arranged. As a general rule of thumb, the…
It’s important that estate planners create detailed plans that they're happy with before they pass away. Estate planning goes well beyond simply writing a will, and it’s easy to forget about important pieces of a complete estate plan. In this…
Unfortunately, it’s common that at some point in your life you will require someone else to make decisions on your behalf – whether those decisions are financial, legal or health related. Before an illness or injury renders you incapable, you…
A BC woman found dead without any legal will written in her name left a hand-written note in her car explaining her final wishes for how she wanted her estate to be distributed. The question before the courts was whether…
When reading about gift-giving in the context of estate law, you’ve probably come across the term inter vivos several times. An inter vivos gift is property that was transferred while the gift-giver was living. The opposite of an inter vivos…
With the world quickly becoming more and more digital, people are constantly looking for new ways to go paperless. For many documents and papers, it’s easy and safe to keep a copy on your computer, phone, or in 'the cloud'.…
As part of writing a valid will in BC, the will-writer must have the testamentary capacity at the time of writing the will. As described in the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, someone with testamentary capacity is vaguely defined as…
It's very common for parents to be concerned about how their children will use their inheritances and many worry about assets falling outside of the family - often as a result of subsequent divorce or separation of the child. For…
It’s common for people to desire a sense of privacy and confidentiality when they prepare their last will and testament. For some, the risk that loved ones might be insulted or angered by the inheritances you chose to gift them…
Often people are aware of what a last will and testament is – legal bequests for how they wish for their estate to be distributed to loved ones upon their passing. Another type of will is the living will –…
