What is Wills & Estate Law?
Wills & Estate Law is about much more than just having your last will and testament written up, although that is important. As soon as you have a full-time job and certainly once you marry or have children, you should have your will prepared. It doesn’t hurt to take it out of the drawer every few years to figure out if it needs updating, either. Every time a child joins a family, for example, both dad and mom, or dad and dad, mom or mom, or just mom or dad, should have their will redone.
The reason it’s called Wills & Estate Law and not just Wills Law is that you need to make plans about how your estate is organized. Your will determines who among your heirs gets what. Estate planning is about making sure that your financial and other assets are set up so that when you are gone, inheritances taxes are minimized. You want your heirs to benefit from your lifetime of achievement, not Revenue Canada.
For individuals with large estates, planning can become complex and involve the creation of trusts and so on. Wills & Estate Lawyers must be expert – and often quite creative – working with the specific tax laws that apply to inheritances.
So, as distasteful as some people find thinking about their own mortality, a Will and, for many people, Estate Planning is essential, and a competent Wills & Estates Lawyer you and your family members trust is equally important. If you don’t like thinking about why you need a Will & Estates Lawyer, just imagine you’re planning for the future – maybe just not your own!