Estate Planning
An Estate is simply everything one owns - the home, other real estate, bank accounts, investments, retirement benefits from an employer, RRSPs, insurance policies, collectibles, and personal belongings. Many people find that they actually own a lot more than they think. It takes a lifetime to build an Estate and it is therefore, worth taking the time to plan to preserve the Estate the person has worked so hard for, through so many years. There are five basic ways to plan an estate:
- Having a Will
- Using Joint Ownership
- Making gifts
- Using beneficiary transfers
- Making a Trust Will
If a person has no Estate Plan - not even a Will - when they die, their assets will be distributed according to a Provincial Intestacy Formula. This seldom reflects the person's wishes.
A Will is no help if the individual becomes incapacitated - because a Will only goes into effect after the person dies. Making a Power of Attorney, which continues even if the person later becomes incapacitated, avoids Court and allows the person's trusted loved ones to immediately look after their financial affairs if they become incapacitated - for their own benefit.