A former Wallaceburg resident is taking appointments for the month of July to prepare wills and power of attorney documents while she is home.
Brittany Fish, B.A., J.D., will be home for the entire month of July providing her mobile legal services.
Fish explained the importance of having a will.
“If you pass away without a will, it is a big burden for your family,” she said. “They have to go to the court and get appointed, because they can’t just go in and divvy out any of your estate. So the courts and the banks will want someone to go in and be appointed. If you don’t do a will, then the state decides who gets your assets. It could be someone you don’t want to inherit from your estate. By doing a will, you put in the specific individuals that you want to get money from your estate.”
Fish added: “Aside from that, without a will they also choose who a guardian is of your children. That is the biggest thing for parents, maybe there is a family member that you may not actually want to have your kids if something ever happened to you. This way you can have it all in your will and you can have child rearing and how you want them to be brought up actually put into your will.”
Fish said people who die without a will are subject to government probate.
“Probate is a tax that would be charged on your estate,” she said. “There are ways to avoid probate, by putting accounts in joint names, property in joint names, without that your estate would be taxed in the end. It’s a good way to have a will, because you are leaving parts of your assets to other individuals and then it won’t be taxed.”
Fish added: “When you die without a will, your estate does not go to a specific person. All your money goes into your estate, and that is probated. That is what people mean when the government takes your money. It’s about 1.5 per cent. That can work out to be a lot. If a couple has life insurance policies and they don’t designate a beneficiary… let’s say they are both $500,000, that’s a $1 million that the government will probate if there was an accident where both spouses die. “
Fish said protecting your assets is the main reason to have a will.
“You protect your assets that you’ve worked so hard for from the government taking any of that,” she said. “And with extended families, and many people not talking to different people in their family, you just don’t want your money going into the hands of the wrong person.”
For more information regarding wills and powers of attorney documents, including prices, contact, Brittany Fish:
– Tel: (613)-406-5701
– bfish@bflegalservices.com
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