Wills & Estates Law in Calgary

While a will allows you to plan for death, the Enduring Power of Attorney and Personal Directive are documents that allow a person to set out their wishes and instructions in the event of mental or physical incapacity.

Often overlooked, these documents can be vitally important in ensuring your assets are properly managed and that you are properly cared for during any period of incapacity.

Your Enduring Power of Attorney allows you to:

• Appoint an attorney of your choosing to manage your legal and financial affairs on your behalf during any period of incapacity
• Leave detailed instructions on how you wish for your assets to be managed
• Place restrictions on the powers of your attorney

Your Personal Directive allows you to:

• Appoint an agent of your choosing to coordinate your medical and social decisions
• Express your instructions and wishes for social involvement, recreation, living accommodations, and medical treatment in various circumstances
• Provide appropriate guardianship and trusteeship for your children during any period of incapacity
• Ease the burden your loved ones face with having to make difficult medical decisions on your behalf

Estate administration can be a daunting and stressful process for many people appointed as a personal representative, and it is not hard to see why.

While a will may properly appoint a personal representative, many aspects of estate administration require a Grant of Probate or Grant of Administration before the personal representative is permitted to deal with certain assets, such as real property and bank accounts. Further, personal representatives take on significant responsibility and potential liability, which must be handled with care and experience.

Our goal is to help personal representatives diligently and efficiently administer the estate of the deceased person while minimizing stress, conflict, and liability.

Our estate administration services are focused on simplifying the role of the Personal Representative and include:

• Assistance in reviewing and interpreting the will
• Preparing and submitting Applications for Grants of Probate or Grants of Administration
• Advising personal representatives on their duties and how best to carry them out, including providing information on the process and the steps to be completed
• Advising on liability and how to best to minimize any liability on the personal representative

If we have asked you to fill in one of our questionnaires for your legal matter, please find it here:

• Wills
• Enduring Powers of Attorney
• Application for Grant of Probate
• Application for Grant of Administration
• Unanimous Shareholder Agreement Questionnaire
• New Corporation Questionnaire