{"id":1148,"date":"2010-12-21T08:47:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T13:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2017-11-19T17:35:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T22:35:50","slug":"willing-to-prepare-for-the-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=1148","title":{"rendered":"Willing to prepare for the inevitable"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might think making a will is too morbid. Or that you\u2019re too young, too healthy, or have too little to your name to even bother. That\u2019s just a mindset you\u2019ll have to get over. <\/span><\/p>\n

Almost everyone should have a will, says estate lawyer John Johnson, because it saves the people you\u2019ve left behind a lot of headache and ensures your assets get split up the way you would like.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a will is like a recipe,\u201d says Johnson, from the Ottawa firm Nelligan O\u2019Brien Payne. \u201cYou follow it and you get what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

A will essentially sets out the division of your assets upon death, and names the person you\u2019d like to execute that will and administer your estate \u2013 also known as the estate trustee.<\/p>\n

Passing away without a will means you die intestate, which can cause complications and delays. Someone then seeking to act as the estate trustee has to apply for a certificate of appointment of estate trustee without a will, formerly called letters of administration.
\nBut before that step, that person would also have to post a bond as security in case he or she improperly collects, administers or accounts for the deceased\u2019s assets.<\/p>\n

This bond is often hard to get and very expensive, says Johnson. According to the Ontario Estates Act, the amount of the bond has to be double that of the value of the estate.<\/p>\n

INTESTATE DIVISION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet one of the biggest problems when you die without a will is that you can\u2019t control who gets what. Your assets would be allocated according to the statutory formula set out in Ontario\u2019s Succession Law Reform Act, which gives the first $200,000 to your spouse, then splits two-thirds of what\u2019s left over evenly amongst any children you have and gives the remaining one-third to your spouse.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not married or don\u2019t have\u00a0 children, priority then works its way throughout the family tree, to parents, then brothers and sisters, then nieces and nephews, all the way to any surviving next of kin \u2013 including that cousin you abhor and haven\u2019t spoken to for fifteen years.<\/p>\n

In other words, the intestacy provisions are blind to any personal preference you may have.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, if you want to leave your estate to your friends, the statutory formula doesn\u2019t know who your friends are,\u201d says Johnson. The same goes for charities.<\/p>\n

Johnson says that with baby boomers aging, he hasn\u2019t seen an increase in people coming in to create their first will because a lot of them have already done that. Rather, he says there\u2019s a growing trend of boomers coming into revise their will because of a second or third marriage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to know that a marriage voids any previous will you may have drawn up.
\nDIY or through a lawyer?<\/p>\n

To create a will, you have the option of going to a lawyer or taking the do-it-yourself route.<\/p>\n

Will kits and online will services are usually the cheaper alternative. They can cost as little as $33.95 but can they be trusted?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually drafted clauses for those kits, so they\u2019re legally correct,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cThe problem is when people don\u2019t follow the instructions correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

If, for instance, the will is not properly witnessed, then it\u2019s void and it\u2019s like you never had one in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have to come into a lawyer\u2019s office anyway,\u201d Johnson says. He adds that it\u2019s mostly people with simple estates who opt for will kits.<\/p>\n

If you choose to go through a lawyer,\u00a0 it will be more expensive. Johnson\u2019s firm charges $500, but he says he\u2019s seen some lawyers charge as low as $150.<\/p>\n

Estate lawyers, however, are aware of the complex nuances of estate law.\u00a0 They can also help to minimize certain costs that kick in during the execution of the will, such as administration and capital gains taxes.<\/p>\n

Whether you write your own or get the help of a lawyer, Johnson says having a will gives you peace of mind.<\/p>\n

He mentions two of his clients as an example. They\u2019re a couple heading to Jamaica on their first holiday without\u00a0 their children. He says they were scared because they didn\u2019t have wills, so they came in and drew them up, just in case.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, it was the right thing to do, and they were certainly comforted by it,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might think making a will is too morbid. Or that you\u2019re too young, too healthy, or have too little<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[230],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-finance-2010","tag-anna-konewka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}