Here's a new concept for a television show: what happens to someone's estate after they die. Believe it or not, this is actually airing on Investigation Discovery. Season three is about to start, and the first episode will feature the estate of Tammy Wynette, the...
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Estate Planning
What to do when a loved one dies
We have a subscription to Consumer Reports at our office. It's a really great magazine with all sorts of great tips for daily living. I was particularly pleased to see an article recently on what to do on the death of a loved one. The article goes through some really...
Protect your assets – and your body
It's a very poorly known fact, but in Ontario, your executor becomes the owner of your body at the moment of your death. Morbid, yes. But that is how it is here. I speak to so many people who don't see the need to have their wills done because they don't have...
Choose your own Attorney
Here's another reason (if you need one) to be very, very careful about who you choose as your attorney (for care in this case, but property is relevant too): a woman in Missouri is accused of murdering her father by using a Power of Attorney to withhold treatment and...
How to bequeath your electronic bills
Two weeks ago, I blogged about passing on your digital music files. Here's another conundrum: how do you pass on access to your online bills, banking, tax filings, and other digital "documents"? According to this article on SmartMoney, there are very few provisions...
Need a will, ask your doctor?
I unfortunately get calls occasionally from people who are at the hospital, or who have loved ones at the hospital, who have discovered their illness is terminal and suddenly realize that they need to have a will drafted. It was no surprise to me, therefore, to read...
The rabbit hole of digital ownership
My friend Sean Bawden read this article the other day and posed this question to me: what happens to your iTunes library when you die? I have written before about digital assets (here and here). Most of that information, however, is about social networking and other...
DIY
I've mentioned it a lot before: wills are complicated, and hard to do on your own. I feel rather vindicated after reading this article in Consumer Reports, where they analyzed several online will-production tools and established that, unsurprisingly, unless your needs...
Choosing your baby’s lawyer
I blogged last week on choosing a guardian for your children before the government does it for you. Here are some other things to consider in terms of estate planning once you have a child: Get advice on life insurance. Maybe you have a good policy through your...
Choose, or someone else will
We tend to go through cycles with our friends as we enter certain age ranges. Last year, I attended six weddings; this year, 11 of my friends (including two of those brides) will welcome new babies into their families. With the recent birth of one friend's son, I got...