Practice area 3.3 · Wills & Estates
Wills & estates
Nobody wants to spend an afternoon on the day they will not be here. But the will you keep meaning to make is the one kindness your family cannot do for themselves. We make the afternoon short, clear, and final.
1. This page is for you if
- 1.1
You have meant to make a will since the first child was born, and that child now drives.
- 1.2
Your parents are getting older and no one has ever seen the will, if one exists at all.
- 1.3
You own a house, an RRSP, and half a boat, and you are not sure who ends up with what.
- 1.4
Someone in Bellwood has died and you have just learned that you are the executor.
2. What the work includes
The will itself
Who receives what, who is in charge, and a guardian named for children who still need one, in words that will not be argued over.
Power of attorney
Someone you trust can handle money and property if you cannot, chosen by you now instead of by a court later.
Representation agreement
Your health and personal-care decisions placed with a person you name, before anyone is left under pressure to guess.
Probate and estate administration
When someone dies, we walk the ExecutorThe person named in a will to settle the estate: collect what is owned, pay what is owed, and distribute the rest.BC law calls this role the personal representative. It is a real job, and it can be declined.Every term, defined through the court application, the accounting, and the distribution, one step at a time.
3. Clocks that may apply
Some rights in this area expire on a timetable, whether or not anyone mentions it. For starting a claim, the law calls that time a Limitation periodThe time limit for starting a legal claim. After it passes, the claim is usually gone for good.Most BC claims have two years from discovery. Our page on the clocks lists the common ones.Every term, defined. These are the clocks we watch on files like yours.
- 3.1Check your dates: Challenging a will as unfair
Challenging a will as unfair
180 days from the day the grant of probate or administration issues
General information about how BC counts these periods, not advice on your facts. Treat the date as the last possible day and act well before it.
4. What it costs
A simple will for one person is $650. Mirror wills for a couple are $975. The full set, a will with a power of attorney and a representation agreement, is $1,350 per person. Probate and estate administration are quoted once we have seen the estate, because no two are the same size.
The estimate builder turns these figures into a range for your own file, with our fee, any DisbursementsOut-of-pocket costs a lawyer pays on your behalf and passes on at cost: registry fees, searches, courier.They are not the lawyer's fee. We list them before you sign anything and show each one on the bill.Every term, defined and the taxes each on a line of their own.
5. What happens next
The anxiety is almost never the law. It is not knowing what happens next. So here is what happens next.
- 5.1
Tell us who and what
A short questionnaire before you arrive: your people, your property, your wishes. You do the thinking at your own kitchen table, not on the clock in ours.
- 5.2
We draft, you read every line
A draft comes back to you with a margin note beside anything a stranger might misread. Nothing is signed until it says exactly what you meant.
- 5.3
Signing, witnessed properly
The documents are signed and witnessed the way the law requires, so no one can later claim they were not. It takes about half an hour.
- 5.4
Your family knows where it is
We store the originals, hand you copies, and make sure the person who will one day need them knows the number to call.
6. Who does the work
We would rather you had a plain will today than a perfect one someday. The estate we least like to administer is the one where there was no will at all.
7. What to bring to the first meeting
Whatever you can find is enough to start. If the file needs anything more, we tell you in writing.
- A rough list of what you own and what you owe
- Names of the people you want as executor and guardian
- Names of the people you want to inherit
- Any will you signed before
- The original will, if you have it
- The death certificate or funeral home statement of death
- Recent bank, investment and pension statements
- Property tax notices and any title documents
If someone is on the other side, bring their names as well. We run a Conflict checkThe search a firm runs before taking you on, to make sure it has never acted for the person on the other side.It is why we ask for names before we ask for your story: if we cannot act for you, we should not hear the details.Every term, defined before we hear the details.
8. Reading, before you spend a dollar
9. Questions people actually ask
- Is a will really worth paying a lawyer for?
- A kit will works right up until it does not, and the failures surface after you are gone, when they can no longer be fixed. For $650 a simple will is drafted, witnessed correctly, and stored, which is small against the cost and delay of an estate the court has to untangle. If your situation is genuinely simple, we will say so.
- How long does probate take in BC?
- It depends on the estate and the court's current pace, and it is rarely as fast as families hope. We prepare the application properly the first time, because the delays that hurt most come from filings sent back for correction. We keep the executor told at each stage rather than leaving them to guess.
- I am an executor and have no idea what to do. Where do I start?
- You start by doing nothing irreversible yet. Bring us the will and a rough list of what the person owned and owed, and we map the steps in order: securing the assets, the probate application, the debts, and only then the distribution. You do not have to carry it alone.
Begin with a conversation
Fifteen minutes on the phone, no charge, and an honest answer about whether you need a lawyer at all.