As you are sitting with your family, being very thankful to have them in your life, I’d like you to take a second to think if you have protected them properly. What happens to them if something happens to you? What if your will hasn’t been updated in a long time? What happens.
The process is as follows:
If you have no will and no living family members your estate goes directly to the Provincial Government! No one wants that!
If you do have relatives and die without a will the following occurs in BC:
- The courts will have to appoint an executor/administrator of the estate (This Costs Money)
- The Administrator needs to identify all eligible, living relatives
- They then need to establish the age at which minor beneficiaries may inherit their portion
After that, then the division of assets starts. The process is as follows:
The Provincial Government will designate a portion that goes to the spouse. This changes depending on what Province you live, for our purposes we’ll use BC as that is where we all live! After the spousal amount is set aside, the rest will be split among the children and the spouse. In BC, the spousal portion is $65,000.
After that the estate will be distributed as follows:
- If you have a spouse and no children, then all money goes to the spouse\
- If you have a spouse and 1 child, the spouse’s share is distributed and the remainder is split 50/50 between the spouse and the child.
- If you have a spouse and more than 1 child, the spouse’s share is distributed and the remainder is split 1/3 to spouse and 2/3 to all living children equally
- If you no longer have a spouse, then the assets are split among all the children equally
- If no spouse or children then the estate goes to your parents equally or the surviving parent (if one is still around).
- If you have no spouse, children or parents, the estate goes to siblings equally
- If you have no siblings, the estate goes to nieces and nephews equally.
This process is extremely long, drawn out and very expensive to go through as it involves a lot of court time. I would also imagine that you would like to have a bit more control over who gets what, and ensuring that your spouse has enough money to survive and enjoy their life.
If your wills haven’t been updated in a long time they may not include all the assets which can cause a whole heap of other problems.
This is not something I’m sure you enjoy dealing with, but the beauty about wills is that they don’t have to be updated all the time, but they do need to be addressed. For a small fee (under $500) a will can ensure that your assets go to who you want them to… and make the process much easier on your family. None of us want to be a burden on our families at any time… let along after we pass away.
Do your family and loved ones a favour and get your wills done… today preferably.
If you need an introduction to a good lawyer, please let me know as I’d love to help.
If you want the full legal version of the above, please go here
If you think this could benefit you or someone you know (friend, relative) let them know about this article, or contact Travis Strain at 604-308-6030, or mail [at] travisstrain.ca
Travis
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