Our staff was at the West End Seniors Association Bigger Bolder Better Symposium the beginning of June. We had lots of questions about revising wills and probate but one of the top questions we received was  - WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A BODY. I have to say my staff was stumped by this question, and we thought dial 911? Call the funeral home? Call the police? None of these answers seemed to address the concern that these seniors had about finding a friend or family member who had...

In our office, we meet with clients to discuss what types of gifts people want to leave in their will. On a daily basis, we see clients who try to give away more then they have. These clients typically arrive at our meeting with a long list of who gets what, and many times the list of who gets what if the first beneficiary dies can be even longer. However, many times after we examine the person's assets and analyze what amount of tax will need to be paid upon their death along with any items...

Many people contact our office and want to make a small change to their wills. For some clients, it may be that their executor has died, or maybe their child is now old enough to become the executor. Whatever the change and reason for the change, we are often asked if the change should be done by Codicil or a will-re-write.

A codicil is a document separate from the original and apart from the will that makes an addition or a change to the will. In our office we try to avoid creating codicils...

In January 2019 the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision on the case of S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing Corp. 2019 SCC 4. This case is a positive decision for persons with a disability.

The case involved a 56-year-old women (S.with disabilities who couldn't work, and who was denied a housing subsidy in 2015 because she refused to provide the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation information about a Henson trust that she had been left in her late fathers estate. The  women was told...

Our clients are increasingly mobile and often have connections to multiple jurisdictions. They may own a house in Palm Springs, have bank accounts in the UK, a cottage in Croatia, or a business in Spain.

Our office once dealt with and estate where a husband and wife had been married for several years. They had three lovely children, and owned a successful business in Edmonton. When the husband past, everything rolled over to his wife...BUT the condo in Hawaii! We had to take the Canadian will...

Purchasing a home is likely to be the largest investment you make in your lifetime – so when you are ready to sell, it is important for you to understand the process of doing so.

In our last blog post, we discussed the first five things to consider when selling your home. Here are the final four considerations:

SIX: Fixtures

On the Purchase and Sale Agreement, the Seller must clearly identify the fixtures being sold with the house and differentiate them with the items they plan on...

Purchasing a home is likely to be the largest investment you make in your lifetime – so when you are ready to sell, it is important for you to understand the process of doing so.

In this blog post, we will discuss the first five things to consider when selling your home: 

ONE: Hire a Realtor

While hiring a realtor is not a legal requirement to selling a home, the benefits of doing so may outweigh the costs. They are experienced in the field of real estate and may be able to offer...

Intent: A desire and will to act in a particular way.

It is this premise that serves as the foundation for determining how funds will be distributed in a joint bank account. The exact definition of “intent” becomes an issue when a parent holds a joint bank account with their child – let us explain:

Parents may hold a bank account jointly with their children because:

1.      It is intended as a gift via the right of survivorship;

2....

What are the perceived benefits of joint ownership?

The right of survivorship is a convincing attribute of joint ownership. The law states that when one of the joint owners passes away, the surviving joint owner(s) will automatically obtain the deceased person’s share. Accordingly, the asset would flow outside of the deceased person’s estate. If an asset flows outside of an estate, it will not be included in the overall value of the estate that is subsequently used to determine...

These days, blended families are more common than the traditional nuclear family.  As a grandparent who has step-grandchildren, you may wish to understand who will inherit should you leave a portion of your estate to your “grandchildren”, or should you provide in your Will that if your child pre-deceases you, their share will go to “the deceased child’s children”.  

In Alberta, step-grandchildren are not automatically included in a Will. ...