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Wills

I have no idea where I want to go. Neither of our families have anything like a family area in a cemetery. I don't think we have more than two family members in any cemetery.
The plot i bought will never be used. My ashes will be scattered.
 
When I was scuba diving , and started solo sailboat racing offshore my moms rule was dont die in a foreign country where we may have to repatriate a body .
When our insurance guy said you should insure the kids , my question was why, we can cover a funeral and kids are just a sucking sound on your bank till 25 or so.
When I go I’ll join the rest of the family quietly dumped off the back of a ship someplace in warm water , it’s a weird rule , but it’s the only one we have lol


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Can you still scatter ashes at sea? or at will? I know Mom always has a film canister with some of Dad's ashes just in case she wants to leave a little of him somewhere nice but she always does it on the sly.
 
So...following my surgery I realized I am an idiot and currently do not have a will for me and my wife.

We don't have a lot of assets (house, some bank accounts, RESPs, RRSP, TFSA) etc but I think it's time to get this lined up.

Anyone have a recommendation? Ideally same guy would do our HELOC to the house as well as I want to get the funds and I don't want to put this off any longer.
In the case of my sister and myself we had Power of Attorney for my dads health and property, so we were able to direct his level of care, pay his bills/transfer money/transfer the property all while he was alive.

I can PM you a lawyer, he's in Etobicoke near my Dads house. He did my dads Will and me and my wife Wills recently. Charged $500 for couple. He can do a basic one over the phone. Email you a copy for review then you come in for signatures. Very easy.

Let me know.

If you have any questions relating to my experience as executor/power of attorney just ask.
 
Supposedly nothing. Can't legally be resold or passed on to anyone. When i take the big dirt nap,i won't care. And I've done dumber things with money.
Plots are big enough to fit a Tenere. I'd leave the handlebars sticking out of the ground.
 
Any lawyer can draft a will, they are for the most part form letters - fill in the blanks.

Family lawyers are the best at wills, they are tge ones who fight the battles when there us no will, they have the family experience to make wills really work to your wishes.

Mine took us thru some tough scenarios.
 
Online, fill-in-the-blanks, Family practice - would you take your motorcycle to a bicycle shop for repair?
Get a lawyer that specializes in Estates and Wills, that is what I did after trying the above alternatives.


She is one of the best and does not charge an arm-and-leg (tho' don't expect a $500 fee).
You will get a Will + the relevant POA's for both you and your wife, with all bases covered.
PM me if you want more detail.
(disclosure: I have no commercial connection with Nika Law and am not in the legal business)

Another thing you might consider is establishing a pre-paid "final journey" plan. Three years ago I started this and for various reasons (laziness is one!), let it drop. Today I am paying the price in increased costs.
 
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We have just come through a three year fight to settle a family will.

Yes, get a will and POAs but.......

Not to MP specifically but a will isn't worth the paper it's written on if your life or that of your family is a mess.

A relative had made lots of bad decisions in his life, was broke and apparently owed money to an unknown number of people.

He challenged the will and legal costs fighting him sucked a ton of money out of the estate. He claimed dependency and was trying to hijack the estate, holding up settlement because if he inherited anything the creditors could grab assets. Other heirs would have to wait decades for their shares

A settlement was negotiated giving him a few extra percent. To go further meant court hearings, disclosures, mediation with five digit tabs for each step. We consulted with a top of the line estate attorney and were told there was no way of guessing how the final settlement would play out.

Kickers:

Warning to executors: The executor went through hell because he didn't know the family dynamics. An executor has a very limited time to back out of the job. Had this gone a different way he could have been babysitting the estate for decades.

The other heirs weren't all that hard up for the money so the challenger is the only one suffering.

If you relate this to any experienced estate lawyer they could probably top it.

Leaving money to people of unknown financial abilities often leads to a blown inheritance. Toys are bad enough. Drugs are worse.
 
We have just come through a three year fight to settle a family will.

Yes, get a will and POAs but.......

Not to MP specifically but a will isn't worth the paper it's written on if your life or that of your family is a mess.

A relative had made lots of bad decisions in his life, was broke and apparently owed money to an unknown number of people.

He challenged the will and legal costs fighting him sucked a ton of money out of the estate. He claimed dependency and was trying to hijack the estate, holding up settlement because if he inherited anything the creditors could grab assets. Other heirs would have to wait decades for their shares

A settlement was negotiated giving him a few extra percent. To go further meant court hearings, disclosures, mediation with five digit tabs for each step. We consulted with a top of the line estate attorney and were told there was no way of guessing how the final settlement would play out.

Kickers:

Warning to executors: The executor went through hell because he didn't know the family dynamics. An executor has a very limited time to back out of the job. Had this gone a different way he could have been babysitting the estate for decades.

The other heirs weren't all that hard up for the money so the challenger is the only one suffering.

If you relate this to any experienced estate lawyer they could probably top it.

Leaving money to people of unknown financial abilities often leads to a blown inheritance. Toys are bad enough. Drugs are worse.

So how could this situation have been avoided? I'm guessing your relative was simply following the advice of his own estate lawyer. Sort of like how an amicable divorce degenerates after the lawyers get involved.
 
So how could this situation have been avoided? I'm guessing your relative was simply following the advice of his own estate lawyer. Sort of like how an amicable divorce degenerates after the lawyers get involved.
Morals? If the one with issues took their lumps (get inheritance, have it seized by creditors) the others might have been more inclined to help them out as they hadnt wasted a fortune on lawyers (which also creates resentment).
 
I have my work life insurance and a standalone life insurance (with beneficiaries and contigent beneficiaries). Everything that matters to wifey is joint with her, aka pretty much everything but the motorcycle

I should still get a will for us... if something happens to the both of us, someone's gotta take care of the kids. On the bright side there's a **** ton of equity in the house so if everything is done right, when we pass, they should be able to have everything taken care of. (I actually never thought of the equity side of things on top of life insurance if both me and wifey were to die simultaneously, they'd be set for a lonnnnng time)
 
So how could this situation have been avoided? I'm guessing your relative was simply following the advice of his own estate lawyer. Sort of like how an amicable divorce degenerates after the lawyers get involved.
The evil in this case was IMO premeditated. I suspect that one day he realized that if his mother died he wouldn't have her house to live in nor her savings and pensions to feed and clothe him. He rarely worked so he spent his time on his computer in his mother's basement researching solutions to his self made problems. With no income his reasonable share of the estate wouldn't buy him a house or the status he thought he deserved.

The biggest problem was denial on his mother's part. Being "Old country" the males were ranked higher. She was very concerned about family image and was embarrassed that he didn't have a job, as if it was her fault. My M-I-L was elderly and on heart meds so no one wanted to stress her by bringing in outside help. "He promised"

The family reform act of years ago made allowances for people made dependent by others. Those considerations can be misused. Final decisions in court cases are made by judges and they can be influenced by personal feelings. Behind every nasty lawyer is a nasty client. If all a person wants is a fair settlement that's how they instruct their lawyer. Some people need revenge and instruct accordingly. Court isn't as predictable as putting together Lego blocks.

If everyone had a crystal ball and knew the detailed future there would be solutions.

A lot of people think that what a person writes in their will is iron clad. It isn't. Today you could sell your motorcycle, use the money to buy premium single malt and give it out to the winos on skid row. If you put it in your will that the proceeds of the sale of your bike went to scotch for winos it would probably never happen.

If you sell your assets while alive and cognizant and give the money away there isn't a lot to fight over. The problem is how long will you live, how much will you need and who do you trust to do the right thing if your situation changes?

If we had suspected the extent of the problem I could have purchased the house, allowing my MIL to keep living there as long as she wanted. The house was in a small town and only worth ~$450 K at the time. BIL could have continued to live there if he stopped acting like a jerk. MIL could disperse the money evenly while she was alive. Minimal probate, minimal lawyers, minimal real estate fees.

Who would you trust to do the right thing if you gave them all your assets? Would you trust their spouse?

What if your situation changed and you needed LTC at $8,000 a month? Full time nursing at a quarter million a year?

Honesty is the most important trait a person can have. Laziness, low intelligence, naivety, physical weaknesses are predictable. You can compensate for them but if someone wants to stab you in the back you never know what they'll use or when.

In general, I suspect another problem with inheritances. They are seen as windfalls, something you didn't work for. Therefore you should expect to share the wealth, after all, you didn't really work for it. You're walking with a friend to the diner down the road and while buddy is watching the sky you're watching the ground. You see a $50 bill and pick it up. Suddenly you should pick up the tab for lunch because you're lucky.

The topic is wills but estate planning is more important if there is the potential of conflict. The hard part there is that ethical people are usually reluctant to bring up the issue with the testator for fear of being seen as a greedy estate monger. Life sucks, death is worse.
 
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As I’ve said before. As someone whose currently going through this process as executor , get your ducks in a row sooner rather then later. You never know what’s going to happen.

-Will
-Summarize your assets and locations. Passwords etc, don’t matter so much as executor can waive power of attorney in anyones face pretty much and get access to what they need. Case in point, when the hospital advised my dad was not going to hang on much longer my sister and I used power of attorney to transfer the house into our names, thus avoiding probate. We also moved his money around, paid down debt, etc.

FYI, even if someone passed and accounts are frozen, bills can still be paid out of that account during probate.
 

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