People will sometimes purchase a will kit thinking that is sufficient. Often it is not.
We have a file where the deceased named his brother as the executor but did not say anything about who the beneficiaries were to be. This created a lot of extra work for us, significantly increasing the time it took to obtain a grant of probate.
With another file where the deceased created several codicils to his will which are the short amendments where the codicils were on multiple Post-it notes stuck to the will. As you can imagine this created a lot of extra work for us before the court would finally issue the grant of probate allowing the executor to begin to call in the assets and distribute the estate to the beneficiaries.
If the court determines that you do not have a valid will, the court will not admit the will to probate. Instead it will revert to a previous will that you might have signed years ago. This is likely the opposite of what you want to see happening, otherwise why would you want to be signing and you will?
If you don’t have a will then your estate will be distributed according to a provincial law which distributes the estate amongst your relatives. If this happens, there is no way of changing the distribution of your estate because it is determined by Alberta statute. In your will you can also provide for who you would like to be the guardians of your minor children.
We would also strongly recommend signing an enduring power of attorney and personal directive. An enduring power of attorney allows someone to look after your financial affairs if you become mentally or physically disabled. A personal directive permits someone that you nominate as your agent to give instructions to medical personnel about end-of-life decisions, such as how long you should be left on life support.
Stemp & Company
