5 things to help make Probating your Estate easier on your Executor and on your Family

As the old adage goes, the only constants in this life are death and taxes, but normally people don’t want to think about death and what will happen when they pass away.  They would rather, rightfully so, focus on the time spent living instead of what happens when they die.  However, a few moments spent on the following may make probating your Estate easier for your Executor, your family and all interested persons involved.

1. Have a Will drafted: The first and foremost piece of advice is to have a Will drafted.  If a Will is drafted it will outline your Executors, your Beneficiaries and your Guardians for any children under 18 in a cohesive document.  Not only does it make it easier to begin probate documents, you may be able to use the Will alone with banks or government agencies, depending on their policies and procedures, thus expediting the process of finalizing the Estate.
   
2. Discuss important points of your Will with your lawyer:
   1. Executors – One thing to consider is the practicality of making someone or a group of people your Executor.  Some considerations I would suggest to discuss are age of the Executor, location of the Executor and whether it is wise to have more than one Executor.If the executor is older, they may be unable to act due to having predeceased you or losing capacity, or not being physically able to get around to do the work required.  If your executor is outside the province, it may be more difficult for them to manage the estate from afar.  Finally, if you have more than one Executor, organizing the executors may be a task in itself and may slow down the estate.
      
   2. Beneficiaries – Have a frank discussion with your lawyer about beneficiaries., who is in your family, if they are under 18 or a dependent adult and any reasoning for giving the gifts in the Will.  The lawyer will also make their own notes to go on the file just in case there is confusion with a beneficiary later
      
   3. Guardians of any children under 18 – Discuss who will look after your children if you pass away prior to them attaining 18 years old.
3. Tell your Executors and Guardians of their role in the Will: Advise any Executors, Guardians or other Trustees that they have a place in your Will. This is not the time to surprise someone with the honour of being your Executor. If these people know their duties prior to your death they will be able to start the process of arranging things immediately following your death. For example, the executor can begin funeral preparations and the guardians can arrange for your children to stay with them. It is also important to provide your wishes to your Executor about anything not covered in the Will, for example, funeral services, online social media accounts etc.
   
4. Tell your Executor, Guardians and Family members where your Will is located: You don’t have to provide copies to your family or your Executor, but you should advise anyone with a role in your Will (including alternate Executors, Trustees and Guardians) as to the location of your most up-to-date version of your will. This will avoid having to search multiple locations. Our office offers storage of original Wills in a fire-proof safe for our Wills clients to make locating the Will of a loved one easier.
   
5. Keep an up-to-date listing of your Assets, Liabilities, Insurance and online passwords and keep with your Will or in a safe location: Some executors will know about your financial affairs and some will not .If you have an ongoing detailed list, it will assist the Executor in ensuring everything has been dealt with in your estate. More and more people also have an online presence that needs to be managed if something were to happen, and providing up-do-date online passwords of social media and other online accounts may assist the Executor in dealing with same.
   

In conclusion, ensuring that you are in communication with your lawyers, executors, guardians and family will assist the probate application and finalizing your estate.
 

Allison Ross

Allison is an Associate with Rowanoak.