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The 10 Essential Documents You Should Have. Part One. Will, Guardianship, Power of Attorney, Living Will

I have been revisiting my legal affairs and recently decided I wanted to have official wills and things created.

In the past, what I had done was those Online Will things. Those website things that tell you to list your assets and check off boxes, then you print it and have two witnesses sign. (I know, I know)…

The problem with them, as I found out, is that the government steps in to review (and charge your estate after you pass) because it is not officially registered and therefore is more of an informal will.

To get it properly done, you need to contract a notary who will do the document, and then register it so that no one can say ANYTHING about your will not being what you wanted.

So here are the documents I am having created, or potentially would create in the future.

The 10 Essential Documents:

Will

Everyone knows this one right? This one is a must-have for everyone, single, married, divorced, childless, what have you. You need to have this document because if you don’t tell people what you want, they’ll end up fighting over who said what, at what point. This document, clearly states what you intended at the time of writing, so if you planned on the home to go to your sibling and not your spouse (OR WHATEVER), then that is what happens.

It also stops the government for deciding on your behalf who gets what. If you want the money to SPECIFICALLY go to certain people, in certain amounts, you need a will.

It also saves expenses if you have a will, and it doesn’t get the government involved when you have more than $40,000 in assets (anything under that, they don’t step in).

This costs about $700 to have one created by a notary for a basic will, but if you start adding Trusts and getting complicated, it can run up to $4000 (more on that later).

Think you don’t need one? Well…

I once heard a story about a woman who was with her common-law partner, and they planned to not have any children. Upon her death, as her parents were not in good financial health, she had wanted her half of the home as well as her assets to go all to her parents.

She happened to think of it, mentioned it to him, and he got really angry because he had assumed everything would go to HIM, not her parents. In their particular place of living, it would have too, as he was her common-law partner (over 1-2 years of living together), qualified him to get it all. She broke up with him because it was kind of a scary realization that he was not respecting what she wanted (he later said – Yeah of course I would give it to your parents – but she didn’t believe him), and she immediately had a will drawn up.

It tells them where you want your money and things to go. If you have assets in a company, cash, your retirement accounts, your home (or in my case, my 50% share of my home), your car, your belongings (sentimental and otherwise, I have a few designer bags for instance that could be resold or kept/given to certain people).

To create a will, you will need to list your savings/chequing accounts (cash), your bank accounts, your investment accounts (they separated mine by RRSP, TFSA, and Other), your car(s), your home(s), and if you owe any outstanding balances on them (e.g. loans, mortgages…)

Guardianship

(if you have dependents)

My Guardianship document is actually included in the Will that is being created.

Basically tells everyone who you want to take care of your child(ren) after you pass. Otherwise, it goes to the nearest relative which, you may not be a fan of for various reasons.

You may want to choose someone who is maybe closer to the child (an aunt, even your best friend), rather than let’s say an ailing grandparent, or a sibling who may not be in the best of situations.

Whatever it is, think hard about who you want to take care of your child(ren) when you pass, who aligns with your values, way of life, and will love them as their own.

Power of Attorney / Living Will

This document is also included in the Will for me. This document says what will happen to you if you become a vegetable (also part of a Living Will – in the Living Will you decide what you want, and the Power of Attorney is power you give to someone else to follow out what your Living Will dictates).

You get to decide who acts for you, on your behalf for financial and medical things (Power of Attorney). Do they pull the plug after a year? After you are considered brain dead and you are alive only by the grace of machines? (A Living Will can clarify things here if they are unsure.)

Do they spend that $50K of your estate on an experimental drug plan for you, or do you decide it is not worth that money? Do they sell all of your assets (and which ones in order!) to cover the unexpected costs of your estate?

All of that goes here, and should go to someone you can trust who is logical about it to do it in your best interests, and for your family’s peace of mind as well, as they may not be rational or coherent enough to make such a decision.

What does it cost?

TOTAL COST: $700

For me, the Will included the Guardianship and Power of Attorney ($700 for a basic Will)

If you want to get tricky, with the Estate Plan creating a Trust within your Will, it can go up to $2000 – $4000 to create your Will, but more on that later.

2 Comments

  • DublinCalling

    Hi. Great tips. Just a note. In Quebec we have notaries. Rest of Canada do not have the same type of notary. They have notary public who basically certify stuff. Their Will are written up by estate lawyers if they want it professionally done. Also in Quebec the Civil Code designates who assets etc go to after your death if you die without a Will. In the rest of Canada specific legislation sets out that information. Other types of Wills such as English style( ie will made in front of 2 witnesses) are recognized in Quebec but as you said they will have to homologated by the court . A protection mandate or mandate in case of incapacity even if done by a notary in Quebec still needs to be homologated. Ie Approved by the Superior Court. Presently it takes at least 6 months and about 2 k or more to get it homologated in Quebec. Not sure how the process works in rest of Canada or the US so I recommend checking your provincial or state information on this!

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