Our Fees
Will, Enduring Power of Attorney, and Personal Directive for one person: $400.00
Pair of Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney and Personal Directives for Spouses or Partners: $500.00
Plus G.S.T.
A higher fee may be requested when your documents would become more complex and require the drafting of clauses specific to the individuals, or where time-consuming consideration of personal situations such as a second marriage is necessary.
We are pleased to offer these services at prices that you would find to be roughly half of what most lawyers seem to be asking for. Leroy has prepared over 2500 wills over his 44 years of practice, he has probated and distributed hundreds of estates, and he has been involved in a number of estate litigation matters.
We assure you of helpful advice to make the process as quick and easy as possible. We can usually have your documents prepared and signed in an appointment of an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Please bring identification and a cheque or cash or be prepared to pay by Interac e-mail transfer.
Please phone us with any questions that you may have (780-424-6660), or e-mail Leroy via the “Contact” link above.
Wills
Making a will is a simpler task than most people realize. You don’t need to make a list of your assets. You don’t need to do any research. What is important is your family situation. For a couple with a minor child or children making wills is usually very easy and fits into a standard format. The main decision is simply who would look after the kids upon the death of both parents, followed by the further decision as to whether or not those “guardians” would also be the executors to look after the financial matters of the estate. It is most common to provide that on the death of the last of the two spouses, the estate of the survivor is to be divided equally among the children or their surviving children along the blood lines.
Families involving second marriages and stepchildren can be more difficult to deal with in a will: a lawyer will assist you with identifying and taking into account possible conflicting priorities.
The people who should have wills the most are parents with children under 18, people with non-traditional family situations, single adults and spouses who have separated. The Wills and Succession Act provides a scheme of distribution of the estate of anyone who dies without a will, but it can lead to some quirky or even disastrous results. Indeed the handling of an estate of someone who has died without a will, or with an ambiguous will that he wrote out himself, can be the best illustration of the admonition that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Lawyers also have another saying, that “the lawyer’s best friend is the man who makes his own will.” That refers to the fact that it is very easy for an ambiguity to creep into a self-drafted will made by someone who isn’t used to considering the various permutations and combinations or the legal effects of the words that he writes down. The person who makes his own will is the lawyer’s best friend because the fees a lawyer would charge for litigating an argument over a poorly-drafted will would be many times what the cost of a properly-drafted will would have been.
Some people take great pains to write down what amounts or specific items that people should get upon their death. We usually urge divisions among your chosen beneficiaries in terms of proportions or percentages rather than in dollar amounts or specific items, but it is certainly up to the person involved and we can talk about what you have in mind.
Since your death would be such a critical event to any dependents that you may have at the time, your affairs should be in order at all times. Your will should always properly express your wishes, and if you have any dependents you should consider getting life insurance to ensure that they would be able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle without your income.
Enduring Powers of Attorney
An Enduring Power of Attorney appoints a person or persons to take charge of your assets, usually effective only upon your mental incapacity. Where you would become mentally incompetent without such a document someone can apply to the Court using the procedure provided for in the Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Act, to have him or her appointed as your trustee and guardian. That procedure, however, is fairly cumbersome and expensive and ordinarily takes six months or more to accomplish. Of course you must make the Enduring Power of Attorney before you become mentally incapacitated.
Personal Directives
In your Personal Directive you would usually appoint your spouse or your adult child or the relative or friend of your choice, to stand in your place to make decisions of a medical or other personal nature for you if you should be unable to make such decisions at the time. It also usually goes on to provide an expression of your wishes that heroic measures not be taken to keep you alive in the event of a medical condition that you cannot recover from. Such an expression could be helpful to guide your family members to make the difficult decisions that you would have wanted to be made on your behalf under such circumstances.