Toronto Wills Lawyer & Litigation Firm – Wills, Living Wills, Estates

Toronto Wills Lawyer: Helping You to Provide for Those who are Most Important To You…

The decision to work with a Toronto wills lawyer to prepare your Last Will and Testament and your Power of Attorney for Care (or Living Will) represents an important step in the management of your family’s financial and legal affairs.

A valid, carefully planned Will helps secure your family’s financial future. It protects your assets from unwarranted taxation and limits potential probate fees payable by your Estate. Most importantly, your Last Will and Testament ensures that your Estate will be shared among those you have specifically chosen.

Your Power of Attorney for Care, which is similar to a Living Will document, empowers one or more trusted persons to make medical decisions on your behalf in critical circumstances, where you may be unable to provide informed medical consent.

Careful Estate planning often requires collaboration between your  lawyer, accountant and financial advisers, Your Toronto Wills lawyer can work with you and your family to achieve the optimal plan for your Estate.

The Toronto Wills lawyers at WISE LAW have assisted numerous individuals and families in the completion of Wills and Powers of Attorney for Care since 1986. We also act in contested Estate Litigation matters throughout Toronto and Ontario.

Our service is discreet, confidential, and cost-effective. Initial telephone consultations are available without fee or obligation.

Contact WISE LAW‘s Toronto Wills lawyers by email or by telephone at (416) 972-1800 to arrange a consultation.

Email WISE LAW  with your Wills & Estates Law Question

Preliminary Considerations for Completion of Your Will

Important, preliminary decisions must be made in preparation for completion of your Will:

• Who will act as your Estate’s Executor and Alternate Executor?
• How do you wish the assets of your Estate to be distributed or divided?
• Are there any important items or heirlooms you wish to make special provision for?
• Do you have any assets that will require specific planning or management?
• If you have children, who will be named as their guardian(s)?
• If minors may become beneficiaries under your Will, at what age(s) do you wish that your bequests be granted to them?

It will be important to give thought to these issues in order to provide comprehensive instruction to your lawyer, so that your Will can be completed. Your Wills and Estates lawyer will also be able to provide advice and guidance as to these concerns when you meet to discuss your Will.

Email WISE LAW  with your Wills & Estates Law Question

Wills – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Do I really need to see a lawyer to complete my Will? Can’t I just use a kit or buy a pre-prepared Will?

A Will is reasonably economical to prepare with proper legal assistance.  There is no substitute for qualified and specific professional advice.Unintended errors or omissions in a Will can delay or thwart administration of your Estate.  They can be very costly to your executors and intended beneficiaries, and in some extreme cases, entirely undermine the validity of a Will. Even if you have completed a Will, it may be extremely difficult to have it accepted for Administration (probate) by the Estate Office of Ontario Superior Court, unless the witnesses to your Will have attended with a lawyer or notary to complete sworn affidavits confirming that they indeed did attend upon your execution of your Will.Your lawyer will generally act as a witness to your Will and complete this documentation at the same time your Will is executed. If your witnesses predecease you or cannot be located, and no such Affidavits of Execution are available, your Will may be rejected.

Do I really need a Will? What is an intestacy? What happens if I never complete a Will?

In Ontario, if you die without a valid, complete Will, an intestacy is created, and the distribution of your Estate will be governed entirely by the Succession Law Reform Act.

This law provides for a complicated mechanism of determining which of your family members will inherit specified portions of your Estate, depending on the amount you leave and the closeness of your relatives’ familial relationship to you.

Where there is an intestacy, a surviving spouse is entitled to a preferential share of the Estate – the first $200,000.00 in value. The residue thereafter is divided between the surviving spouse and surviving children.

If there is only one child, the spouse and child divide on a 50-50 basis. If there is more than one child, the spouse is entitled to one-third, and the remaining two-thirds is divided equally between the children.

If there is no spouse and no children, the Estate will pass to a parent or parents. If no parents survive, the Estate will pass to brothers or sisters of the deceased. Absent surviving siblings, the property of the estate will be distributed among the nephews and nieces of the intestate equally. If there are no surviving nephews and nieces, however, the ranking “next of kin” as defined in the Act are entitled to share in the Estate.

This scheme is further complicated by Ontario’s Family Law Act. The FLA entitles a surviving spouse to elect either to take under the Will / intestacy, or alternatively, under the Act’s property division and equalization scheme (ordinarily applicable upon marital separation / divorce).

What is meant by “Estate Planning?” What difference does it make?

Proper Estate planning takes into account the best means of minimizing the liability of your Estate and its beneficiaries to pay income taxes and provincial Estate Administration fees when your Estate is administered.

These fees are entirely based on the value of your Estate – the greater the value of your Estate, the higher probate fees will be.

“Estate Planning” refers to the process whereby you and your professional adviser work to lawfully structure your holdings and assets so as to minimize the taxes and fees that may be payable at the time of your death.

This form of planning aims to maximize the after-tax value of your Estate in order that you can best provide for your beneficiaries.

What taxes will be payable by my Estate?

This question can best be addressed by your accountant and financial advisors, with reference to your specific circumstances. In general terms, however, the following are examples of typical taxes which may apply:

• Your Estate will be required to pay income tax in the year of your death.
• All monies held in your RRSP’s could be taxed as income in the year of your death if your Will does not provide for a tax-exempt transfer.
• Without careful planning, all your investment assets will be deemed to have been sold on the date of your death, and your Estate will be liable for capital gains taxes on all such assets.

Why do you recommend that I prepare a new Will if mine was made before 1986?

The Ontario Family Law Act came into force in 1986. It allows a person making a Will to specifically declare and provide that a gift under the Will is not to be considered part of the ‘net family property’ of the beneficiary if that beneficiary undergoes a matrimonial separation or divorce. Prior to 1986, family property was treated differently in martial separations, and such a provision in a Will was not required or generally, contemplated.Today, unless a Will contains an explicit provision excluding the inherited property from the beneficiary’s net family property, his or her spouse could be entitled to a divided share of the inheritance and income from the inheritance.

Wills completed before 1986 do not typically have such a provision, and should be updated accordingly.

All current Wills should be reviewed to ensure that this provision is included if it is your intention to shield the inheritance from the potential for a claim by a spouse under the Family Law of the Province.

Email WISE LAW  with your Wills & Estates Law Question

Powers of Attorney for Personal Care

You may complete a Power of Attorney for Personal Care to empower one or more trusted persons to make decisions on your behalf as to your personal and medical care in critical circumstances where you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to provide informed medical consent (Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. 30).

Under Ontario law, if you have not granted a Power of Attorney for Personal Care and are unable to consent to medical care or treatment, an application may be required to the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board for the appointment of a substitute decision maker for you. Your consent is not required in such a proceeding and you may have no legal or personal control over such an appointment.

Accordingly, in urgent circumstances, a Power of Attorney for Personal Care can be of critical and timely importance to your family members and healthcare providers alike.

You may also provide specific instructions in a Power of Attorney for Personal Care as to the decisions you do or do not authorize your attorney to make on your behalf. For example, some people elect in the Power of Attorney for Personal Care to specifically instruct health care providers as to the degree to which extraordinary measures may be taken to resuscitate or medically extend natural life where there is no reasonable prospect of genuine recovery thereafter.

A Power of Attorney for Personal Care is a compact document that can be quickly and cost-effectively prepared to provide great peace of mind and certainty to you and your family.

At WISE LAW OFFICE, we recommend the preparation of this documentation at the same time your Last Will and Testament is completed, with similar periodic reviews also urged at three-year intervals thereafter.

Your attorney must be at least sixteen (16) years of age, and may not be receiving compensation from you at the time of appointment for the delivery of healthcare services to you.

Contact WISE LAW‘s Toronto Wills lawyers by telephone at (416) 972-1800 or by email to gwise@wiselaw.net to discuss your Power of Attorney for Care or to arrange a meeting with us at our Toronto or Mississauga Offices.

Email WISE LAW  with your Wills & Estates Law Question

Wills and Powers of Attorney – Our Fees

The cost of preparing a simple, uncomplicated Last Will and Testament is $500.00 for one individual Will. The fee for mutual, spousal Wills is $800.00, for two spouses. In complex matters, additional fees will apply.

Powers of Attorney for Personal Care and Continuing Powers of Attorney (for Property) may also be prepared at a fee of $250.00 per document or $350.00 for both.

Fees are payable upon completion of the documentation. HST is applicable on all fees.

Email WISE LAW  with your Wills & Estates Law Question

©  Garry J. Wise and Wise Law Office. This article is intended for information purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice and may not be relied on as such. The reader is expressly advised and cautioned to consult with a qualified Wills and Estates lawyer for information and advice regarding the reader’s specific circumstances.