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Wills & Estates

We Can Help U to craft a personalized Will, and Personal Directive that becomes a part of the whole families’ life process.  We believe that a will is not a secret thing and a will should reflect both the wishes of the Will Creator and fit within the law.  It is your will and if everyone knows you want to leave your Estate to the Cat Society or the Dog Trust then there will be no surprises when life transitions to death. If everyone knows where the will is kept, who the executor is, when the will was created, then everyone can relax and get on with the business of living.  

Personally Crafted Wills

We Can Help U to create a short or long-form will, to help those people surviving you get on with the business of taking care of your affairs. We Can Help U wants to be the place where you go to learn about the Why’s and Wherefores of one of the most important documents in your lifetime. 

 

Everyone needs a will – no question about it

- let We Can Help U be your go-to expert.

  

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Family Real Estate

Estate

PLANNING

before death or incapacity

Reviewing and Updating a Will

We Can Help U update and maintain your will when there has been any change to your life events.  Quite often, people have a will when they first get married and maybe change it when the first child is born.  We want people to be educated about reviewing and updating their will as their life unfolds.  An email to us can easily make a change and update to a will where your spouse has died, you are divorced from them, children become adults and your will is in need of an update. 

​Remote Document Signing & Witnessing

During COVID and into the future there are methods for commissioning documents that enhance security and health safety for everyone. At this time, I am working out a custom solution between the signer and I so we can witness their signature safely. We can usually work out a mutually accessible COVID free space to meet (following Alberta Health Care guidelines) to sign documents.  For some applications, Justice is allowing for Video signing.  

Assisted Death

  When you are prepared for death, the choices we make gives us empowerment over living our lives fully.  

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Check out our link to Dying with Dignity’s website. This site and the information they share with Canadians is close to my heart.  I believe we should all be prepared to die at any time.

Enduring Power of Attorney

IEnduring power of attorney is an agreement between you and a person you trust that allows them to make financial decisions on your behalf if you’re no longer capable of making these decisions.

 

The agreement:

  • is written when you’re capable of making your own decisions

  • states when the person you trust will have authority

  • can start immediately and continue if you lose capacity

  • can start when you lose capacity

 

Enduring power of attorney is defined by the Powers of Attorney Act. If you lose your capacity and don’t have an agreement

If you lose your capacity and don’t have an enduring power of attorney agreement in place, one of your friends or family members might have to go to court to become your trustee. This takes time and money.

If you have this agreement in place, you don’t need a trustee.

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You should contact a lawyer or paralegal service to get this agreement. Our lawyer Russ Gregory can explain all your agreement options such as specific decisions, specific dates, specific limits, and/or multiple people.

Personal Directive

Alberta does not have living wills. Instead, we have personal directives. You may not be able to make decisions if you suffer a serious:

  • injury – like from a car accident

  • illness – like a heart attack or disease

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A personal directive is a legal document you make in case you can not make your own personal decisions in the future. A personal directive:

  • is optional and voluntary

  • names the person or people you have picked to make personal decisions for you – a person you name on the personal directive is called an agent

  • makes sure your written instructions are known in case something happens to you

  • only comes into effect if you are found to lack capacity – that means you are not able to make your own decisions

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When you make a personal directive, the person or people you pick to be your agent have legal authority to make personal decisions for you. This could be temporary or long term.

Probate

A Grant of Probate is a legal document signed by a Justice of the Surrogate Division of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta which confirms the validity and legitimacy of the deceased’s Last Will and the Executor’s authority to distribute the deceased’s Estate. 

 

Financial institutions typically won’t release the deceased’s funds to the Executor until a Grant of Probate or Administration is provided.

 

Similarly, any land held in the deceased’s sole name cannot be transferred or sold without a Grant.

Estate

ADMINISTRATION

upon death or incapacity

Reviewing the Will

There are 2 times when you should review your will: 

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  1. When there is a change in your life – children born, children become adults, death or divorce of your spouse or life partner, change to your financial implications, you want to leave someone a bequest, at least every five years.  

  2. ​Your administrator, executor has found out they are now helping to settle your Estate. They are not sure what to do so they call us, and we will get them on the path to making your life a warm memory to everyone.  

Preparing Required Forms

“What do I do! Where do I start! My sister is being mean to me! Everything is done, what do I do now?  We Can Help U can take you through the death process from before the event to the point where you are a beautiful memory in your family’s story.  

 

With the proper advance planning and preparation, you will get to that beautiful memory stage secure in the knowledge you have done everything within your power to provide your family with the preparation they need

Surrogate Court Help

We Can Help U works with some clients from Choice Memorial, Teresa (the owner) has put We Can Help U in her helpful booklet of people to call after the death.  We Can Help U can help with Surrogate Court paperwork to prepare Court forms whether you had a will or not.  A Grant of Probate (with a will) or a Grant of Administration (without a will) is needed for a Bank to release funds, or to speak to the Government (even a spouse) to obtain an increase in their pension after their spouse dies. With so many things about life events going online – many seniors or technology challenged individuals are not able to complete online forms and send them away to get the benefits they need and are entitled to.  We Can Help U - with sending out the correct documents at every stage of the end-of-life event.    

Estate Matters Advising 

​If your administrator executor has found out they are now helping to settle your Estate, they may not be sure what to do so they call us. We will advise them and help get them on the path to making your life a warm memory to everyone!

Land Transfers

When I worked at the Registry, we had to prepare forms to order Death Certificates.  Knowing our clients very well, we soon discovered that a lot of these people needed to transfer their property from Joint names to their name.  We Can Help U opened its own Land Title account 20 years ago and we have never looked back.  Through Teresa at Choice Memorial, word of mouth, and repeat clients we have done a lot of transfer work.  We Can Help U has a lot of experience with all aspects of Land Titles procedures for Alberta.  If you need to make changes to your land title, we can do that easily.   

Help Filling out Forms

“What do I do! Where do I start! My sister is being mean to me! Everything is done, what do I do now?  We Can Help U can take you through the death process from before the event to the point where you are a beautiful memory in your family’s story.  With the proper advance planning and preparation, you will get to that beautiful memory stage secure in the knowledge you have done everything within your power to provide your family with the preparation they need.

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