Making a Will in BC Town Hall 2022

  • Recorded on: October 4, 2022

  • Length: 60 minutes

Summary

Lawyers Michael Scott and Brandi Stocks and notary public Clinton Lee answer questions about making or updating your will in British Columbia. This town hall builds on our webinar on making a will and an earlier town hall on making a will.

Highlights

In this webinar, you will learn:

  • What happens when someone dies without a will. [3:10]

  • What happens to the deceased's assets and money when they have no will. [4:15]

  • Whether you can use a self-help kit to make a will. [6:50]

  • At the same time you make a will, whether you should also be making a power of attorney and a representation agreement. [9:00]

  • What happens if you don't have an executor for your will. [12:20]

  • For people who don't have a family member or close friend to be their executor, what options there are. [14:45]

  • When the executors you have appointed have moved or died, whether you should just go with a professional. [16:45]

  • What kind of fee an executor can charge. [19:10]

  • Whether to portion out your will by specific dollar amounts or a percentage. [20:50]

  • If you want to make a joint will with your spouse, whether you can leave the residue to different people. [23:15]

  • How wills variation legislation works. [25:15]

  • Whether your beneficiaries will be liable for your debts when you die. [27:25]

  • Ways to leave property to your children to minimize probate fees and capital gains tax. [28:30]

  • In donating to a charity in your will, whether there is a percentage that is most advantageous to all concerned. [32:25

  • Whether to connect with the charity even though you can’t guarantee the amount they will receive. [34:00]

  • Whether you can say in your will that your estate can only be inherited by a person with the same last name as yours. [35:10]

  • Whether you can say you don't want your house to be sold until your child has a place to live. [37:20]

  • Where you have beneficiaries who are dual citizens (US and Canada), whether you need to do anything special with your will. [38:40]

  • How you can protect a disabled child or relative when leaving them something in your will. [41:30]

  • Other planning considerations if you have a disabled child. [46:50]

  • Whether, if you leave some money to a long lost relative, your executor has a duty to try to locate them. [48:50]

  • How often you should update your will. [51:25]

  • Whether the perception is true that a court challenge to vary a will often succeeds. [52:05]

  • How you can strengthen a will to better withstand a wills variation challenge. [53:25]

  • If you have property in other countries, whether you should be making a separate will in each country. [54:45]

Featuring

Michael Scott

Michael Scott

Michael Scott is a lawyer at Clark Wilson LLP in Vancouver. He practices in estates and trusts and elder law. He is passionate about helping individuals work through their estate planning options by simplifying complex legal principles to ensure the decisions they make about wealth transfer, business succession, incapacity and disability are well-informed ones.

Brandi Stocks

Brandi Stocks

Brandi Stocks is a lawyer with the Public Guardian and Trustee in the Child and Youth Services Division.

Clinton Lee

Clinton Lee

Clinton Wai Yin Lee has been a practicing notary since 2015. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and a Masters in Applied Legal Studies from Simon Fraser University. He joined David Watts in 2016 and is a staff notary at the office. He loves the ability to serve his community with legal services that allow them to move forward in life. Whether it’s helping clients with their estate planning or their first home purchase, the reward is seeing people able to make a positive step in their life through his profession.

Attendee feedback

“Thank you for an amazing webinar. Very helpful information. Again the moderator is so good at her job — great voice and communication skills. Loved the articulate expertise of experts today. Thanks again!”

“Good job — interesting and informative. Relaxed and professional presentation!”

“That was great, looking forward to the recording so I can see what I missed. Thank you for putting these seminars on, they are super informative!”

“Thank you for empowering regular people. Your work does not replace lawyers, it helps people see the benefit of lawyers and legal advice.”

“I appreciate the webinars as a way of developing understanding of legal issues.”

“Thank you Brandi, Clinton, Michael & Paula + team at People's Law School — very interesting & informative session.”

“Thank you for all your webinars — so very helpful.”

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