The Team at Family Central Law is here to ensure clients during these challenging times do have access to efficient and customized estate planning legal services. The Lawyers at Family Central are dedicated in their commitment to working with you to deliver a well drafted and personalized Last Will and Testament ("Will"), Personal Directives and/or Powers of Attorney, which are essential for every Albertan to have in place more than ever.
Fundamental to the the ethos of the lawyers at Family Central Law is that clients also feel they have been comprehensively taken care of, and that you feel empowered regarding the knowledge gained during this process.
We strongly believe that clients by the end of working with our team should feel confident and have a firm understanding of their own estate planning, because that is why a client has retained us in the first place. Estate planning at its core should be about knowledge transfer from a skilled lawyer to the client by the time we finish the process with the execution of your Will, Personal Directive and or Power of Attorney documents.
At a very high level overview, a Will (estate administration after death), a Personal Directive (health decisions while still alive), and a Powers of Attorney (financial decisions while still alive), are each indepenantly very important estate planning documents, and when done properly can save clients and their loved ones thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal entanglements, as well as avoiding time consuming and emotionally draining estate administrative processes that can be required otherwise.
Can you start and complete your new Will, Personal Directive and/or Power of Attorney with everything that is going on?
Absolutely you can. The team at Family Central, the lawyers and staff continue to work in office and remotely even though our office is not open for the general public (non clients) currently, and as such work on files including our commitment for clients and their estate planning continues and is being delivered timely and with our commitment to quality and value driven legal services.
We are engaging with clients not only by way of telephone and teleconferencing, but also connecting by way of: Zoom, Facetime and Skype meetings so that we can discuss with you in a most engaged and client friendly way because again our ethos is that we can deliver legal services that make you feel confident in your choice in us as your estate planning lawyers.
Substantively, every Albertan in very a challenging public health time needs to review the following information as it relates to them and what they have done for their own estate planning:
With the introduction of the Wills and Succession Act in 2015 in Alberta the importance of a well articulated Will has never been more important and instrumental in how an individual’s Estate will be administered and critically how the wishes of a individual can and should be respected and followed.
If you have a Will that dates back before 2015 when the Wills and Succession Act came into force, there is a good chance that your Will may have outdated language, does not include the necessary provisions required to probate a Will through the Surrogate at the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, or your Will may include provisions or exclude matters that are relevant under the new Wills and Succession Act.
While updating your Will is very important and you should do this if you are concerned that your Will is outdated, what is often more concerning is the lack of a Will due to the fact one has not got around to getting a Will executed, or that they have embarked on a self-filled out Will kit that is not properly executed or does not address the Estate and financial issues of that particular individual.
Often individuals are under the misunderstanding that they may have embarked on getting a Will executed but they have not completed the process, but they believe that they have given instructions that are legally binding. This is not the case; an individual must have an executed Will in order to have legally binding instructions regarding their Estate.
In addition to getting the process completed and having an enforceable Will executed, when having your Will consultation and engaging in the process of having a Will customized to your needs. what needs to be considered is a detailed review of your assets and debts and how they relate to your Estate, including:
- Insurance policies with special attention paid to death benefits and cash values;
- Registered accounts including RRSPs and TFSAs;
- Jointly held accounts;
- Jointly held property with special attention paid to the ownership structure of this property including whether property is owned in joint tenants, tenants in common, freehold, leasehold, or other property ownership structures that may be applicable;
- Debt obligations with special attention to whether a debt is secured and unsecured; and
- Corporate ownership - with special attention to the ownership of shares and how property owned by a corporation can be included or excluded as part of an Estate.
The above is a list of the central property matters that should be reflected upon when understanding the drafting and execution of your Will and how this will impact the value, tax implications and ultimately distribution of your Estate.
When consulting with a wills and estates lawyer, a client should feel confident in not only executing a Will that will be upheld with their wishes respected, but they also should be able to rely upon that lawyer providing services such as storage of the original Will on site in a fire proof safe, providing certified copies of the Will, and providing updates of your Will when changes need to be made at affordable rates.
Finally, it has become very common that clients are putting in place all at once "bundling" their Will with that of a Personal Directive and Power of Attorney. All three documents at Family Central Law are done at a flat fee rate which covers you from second you engage with your Family Central lawyer to finalizing these legal documents in the presence of your trusted estate planning lawyer, and then finally walking out the door knowing you are protected and confident in your estate planning.
At Family Central Law Office, we would be happy to schedule an initial free telephone consultation regarding the drafting and execution of your Will, Personal directive and Power of Attorney, or update these legal documents so they reflect your intentions now as well articulated estate plans.
kindly contact us today for your free 20-30 minute consultation on your matter by calling our office by calling: 587-392-7970 or emailing info@familycentrallaw.com, or by leaving us a mesage with your information directly on our consultation page so we can get back to you within 24 hours of contacting us.
