Personal Planning Procrastination

Recently I had the privilege of addressing approximately 30 seniors about the topic of Personal and Estate Planning–my favourite area of law. Looking after my clients to ensure their estate planning is complete and to their best advantage, both personally and financially, is so gratifying.

I began the presentation by advising the audience I had been asked by our esteemed Editor Val Wilson to write an article about estate planning for the Fall issue of The Scrivener. When I told them I was considering calling the article, "Personal Planning Procrastination," the whole room erupted in laughter. I knew I had the right topic for this article.

It is so very important for us humans to realize and accept that we must plan our legal documents—just the way we plan what we will have for dinner, when we will leave for work, the clothes we will wear today, the holiday we will take this year, to ensuring that our dependent family members and pets are protected in the event we become incapacitated or we pass away.

For the efficient management of our assets at that time in the future, we need several legal documents to set out our wishes:

• If we become incapacitated, we need a Power of Attorney. If we don't have that legal document, the only alternative is for a relative, friend, or the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee in BC to make application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a Court-appointed "Committee" (pronounced Comitay) to deal with our assets. That process is expensive and time-consuming.
• If we are unable to make our medical decisions for ourselves, we need a Representation Agreement and an Advance Health Care Directive. If we have no advocate to represent us in our medical situation and a way to give informed consent to the medical community for our personal care and treatment, we are effectively granting the medical community the power to make critical medical decisions for us, without knowing our wishes. Those legal documents provide the names of the individuals who have agreed to be our advocates and to guide those medical decisions.

If we die without a Last Will and Testament, our estate is considered intestate. Then the guidelines in the British Columbia Wills, Estates and Succession Act will determine who will receive any British Columbia assets registered in our name alone, where no beneficiary has been appointed. The Supreme Court of BC will appoint the “Executor/Administrator/Trustee” and the Court will also appoint a guardian for our minor children, if no other parent survives.

Those essential legal documents can be completed only by you. Please obtain good legal and financial advice. Consult your Notary Public and Accountant today, to ensure that you and your family members are protected from unnecessary legal and taxation costs in the future.

Procrastination definitely does not benefit you or your family members or your favourite people or charities.

Take the plunge today. Your decisions will control your assets and your life—when you cannot.

---

MARGARET RANKIN is a BC Notary Public in North Vancouver.

Posted in Personal Planning