SHOULD I Get a Will Done Immediately?
The short answer is YES you should get your Will done immediately. Without a valid will, there can be many terrible consequences, including:
- your assets will probably go to the wrong people;
- the wrong person will get appointed as your estate trustee (executor), who will manage the entire estate/inheritance;
- your estate could be subject to additional taxes;
- your children could go to live with someone you don’t approve of;
- you might require an expensive insurance policy (up to 5% of the estate value)
Let’s take a look at each one.
Your Assets Go to the Wrong People
Without a Will, your assets would be distributed based on legislation, NOT what you actually want. This means your common law spouse wouldn’t get anything and even a married spouse would be forced to split your assets with any children you have, even if you don’t have any relationship with that child.
Take the example of Lee and Bruce who have been in a common law relationship for 10 years. They live together and have one child. Since they are not married, ALL of Bruce’s assets will go to the child and not Lee. If all the bank accounts, real estate, vehicles… are only under Bruce’s name, this could leave Lee with nothing.
If they were married, Lee would get a portion of Bruce’s assets, but everything above $350,000 will get split with the child. Again, this could leave Lee with far less than she needs to live on.
What’s worse – if the child is under 18 years old when Bruce passes, then the child cannot consent to give up their inheritance. At the same time, the child cannot own a bank account independently or go on title to a real estate. This means that another adult would need to be appointed to manage the child’s inheritance until they turn 18.
The Wrong Person May Get Appointed as your Estate Trustee (Executor)
Often, our clients tell us they want only one of their children to be the estate trustee, instead of having all their children take on this role jointly. The reasons vary, but it is often about where they live, their abilities, or their trustworthiness. Without a Will, the beneficiaries need to agree on who the estate trustee will be.
If they don’t agree, the estate could get tied up in litigation or be forced to buy bond insurance costing up to 5% of the value of the estate. If you have a Will, you can avoid disputes and bond insurance.
Your Estate Could Be Subject to Additional Taxes
Some assets can go to beneficiaries without being taxed. For example, shares in a private company can pass to beneficiaries using a Corporate Will. When this happens, no probate taxes are paid on the shares. Without a corporate will, taxes will need to be paid on the value of any shares. If your corporation is worth a lot, this could be a very large amount of tax. For example, if the business is worth one million dollars, your beneficiaries will need to pay an additional $14,250 in taxes.
You Can Say Who Will Care for Your Children and Their Inheritance
Without a Will, you have no control over who would care for your children or their inheritance after you die and you have no way to limit how the inheritance can be used. However, with a well-drafted Will, you can appoint a custodian and guardian for property for your minor children, in the event that both parents pass before the child turns 18.
CAN You Get a Will Done You’re Already Sick?
Well, yes, but what do you do if you are suddenly injured or ill and are not able to get to a lawyer’s office? This has been an issue faced by many of our clients over the years. Sadly, many get sick or injured, and pass without having done a Will. In this case, what should they have done differently?
Well, there are basically 2 solutions:
1) you can do an online Will or write a Will yourself and hope it is valid, which is often NOT the case; or
2) you can find a lawyer willing to meet you at your home or at the hospital to do something commonly referred to as a “deathbed Will”.
At Varity Law we will come to you if possible because we know that homemade or online Wills suffer from many issues, including the following:
- Clients do not understand the Will since they don’t receive a proper explanation. This causes stress and often results in assets going to the wrong people;
- Online or homemade Wills often overlook essential needs, like proper witnesses, caring for minors, or transferring businesses. Without taking these factors into account, your Will may be invalid – this means you won’t have a Will
- Online or homemade Wills often have major contradictions, which result in the Will being declared invalid. If this happens, it is like you have no Will; a common example is giving a jointly owned real estate property to your child in the Will. However, in reality the joint real estate owner would automatically inherit it, bypassing your children.
- It is harder to prove nobody forced the deceased to sign the will, so an excluded beneficiary could claim someone forced the deceased person to give them their inheritance. If the Will was done in person with a lawyer, the lawyer could easily confirm the deceased wasn’t forced;
- Homemade or online Wills are much weaker and result in more disputes. For example, an excluded beneficiary could argue that the deceased didn’t have the mental capacity to make a Will and that they were excluded by accident. If the Will was done in person, a lawyer’s assessment would be more reliable.
To avoid these risks, you can get a Will done by Varity Law. In addition to ensuring our Wills are valid and binding, we go above and beyond by doing the following:
- We can meet you at your home, hospice, or hospital to execute your Will and explain every clause.
- We provide a Will with the exact clauses you need to distribute your assets and protect your loved ones.
- We provide you with 2 witnesses to ensure the Wills are valid.
- We conduct proper competency checks to prevent anyone from successfully claiming you weren’t competent to do your Will and we can record these assessments in case they are ever needed in the future.
- After you pass, we submit the Will to the Court to be approved, allowing the correct beneficiaries to receive their inheritance quickly. Very few law firms would offer one-stop-shop in writing Wills, applying for probate, and supporting executors to distribute the inheritance.
Are there Extra Fees for doing a Will at Home or from a Hospital?
Yes, there are fees, but our goal is to ensure your inheritance goes to the right people, and not to make profit from your illness. The only additional charge is for our time travelling to your home or hospital and back to our office. We can also do the intake process and the first capacity assessment online to keep the process as simple and inexpensive as possible.
After the Will has been signed, you can have us keep your Will in our secure storage for no additional cost. Eventually, after you pass, your beneficiaries simply notify our office and then we can start the inheritance process right away.
Conclusion:
While the probate process can be difficult for many people, it is much easier with a will. We recognize that it may be impossible to do a will in a lawyer’s office sometimes. For these clients, we are here to help ensure you have a valid will and that your dying wishes are followed.
If you have any questions regarding your Will or the probate that comes after, we invite you to book a first free consultation by clicking HERE.
