I got married at the end of October last year. Among other things, signing that piece of paper meant that my husband and I no longer had wills; the ones we had signed about a year before that were automatically revoked the moment we were married. This is a point that...
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wills
Death in the middle of divorce
I am currently assisting two clients with estate administration for their husbands, both of whom died very suddenly and without wills. The situations are opposite, and it comes down to a separation agreement. For my first client, she and her husband had been separated...
Keep mindful of religion
I once had clients who were having wills drafted. He was Muslim, of Iranian background; most of his family was overseas. She had converted to Islam after marrying him, and they had chosen to raise their children Muslim. It was very important to them to have wills in...
Don’t write a will
I spend a lot of time discussing why you should have a will. For your enjoyment: the top 10 reasons why you should not have a will.
Remembering those who gave their lives
Yesterday, in Canada, was Remembrance Day, a day when we remember those who fought for our country. In honour of that, I wanted to write about the soldiers of World War I – in particular, about their wills. Thousands of soldiers answered the call to fight in WWI. Many...
Signing when you can’t see
I was asked a very interesting question by a client today: how do you sign a will if you are blind? There is a provision in the Succession Law Reform Act that requires the will to be in writing and signed. However, it can also be read to the client and signed at his...
Regulating estates lawyers
I happened across this article in IFA Online the other day about regulation of estates lawyers in the UK. Essentially, their governing body has proposed making will drafting a "reserved" area of practice, so that only those lawyers with special expertise (and...
Fun facts
Larry Bodine posted this article a few days ago over at the JDSupra blog called "Ten Things You Don’t Know About Estate Planning." Among the more unusual: the first will dates back to ancient Egypt, and involved Uah leaving all to his wife, Teta; the record for the...
Protecting a disabled beneficiary
I see many clients who have children with medical conditions, most often varying degrees of autism, that will make it very difficult for them to manage their finances in the future. For these clients, there is a very specific type of trust that I put into their wills...
Do you have a will?
If you have a will, you fall into the minority. It’s a pretty exclusive club: according to a survey done by RocketLawyer in the U.S., 57% of Americans have no wills; most likely these statistics hold true for Canadians as well. Even more interesting is some of the...