|
|
|
Home >
Finance > Grant Hicks |
| |
|
Retirement Planning with Grant Hicks
|
 Grant
Hicks, C.I.M., FCSI is a professional speaker, co-author and
a Retirement Planning Specialist A leader in
the financial industry, Grant has been helping Vancouver
Island residents plan and create their retirement lifestyles
since 1989. |
| |
Executor's Challenges
If you have ever been an executor for
someone who has died, you know it can be tremendous
amount of work. It is like becoming inspector
Columbo, to find out the information, you need to
ask a lot of questions.
If you have been named executor, how
do you confirm you were named as the executor?
You need to get the original version
of the will to verify this. The challenge is finding
the original will. If it not at their home, the
original will may be in a safety deposit box or at
the lawyer’s office. You need to have the safety
deposit box key and a death certificate. A good idea
is to keep a copy of the will with your safety
deposit box key so the executor knows before they go
into the bank that there will be no challenges.
If the will is at the bank and names
you as an executor, the bank will let you take the
will and list the contents of the safety deposit
box. If you still have no luck finding the original
will, you can do a search at the
Vital Statistics agency if the will was drawn up
in British Columbia.
The testator (A testator is a person
who has written and executed a last will and
testament that is in effect at the time of his/her
death) or the testator’s lawyer may have registered
a will’s notice with the government.
This notice may help you find the
will as it sometimes tells where the testator
planned to keep the original will and confirm the
executor. The next step is the probate process.
Probate is the legal process of administering the
estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims
and distributing the deceased person's property
under their valid will. However when property that
is not part of the will is discovered, such as old
life insurance policies and annuities, it becomes a
mystery again.
Often, documentation for life
insurance and annuities made decades ago may have
been misplaced or lost, leaving the executor to look
for someone who can trace things. To top it off
several Canadian Life insurance companies have
merged, leaving the executor to wonder what the new
life insurance company name is. For example, most
companies never issue annual statements on
annuities. It is a policy issued once and you
usually never get a statement.
How will the executor ever know this
if there have been no statements on an old annuity
policy for years?
The best tip I can give someone to
help out simplifying the job as an executor is
lists, lists and lists. Keep all the lists in one
place. Lists of assets, insurance policies, personal
records, tax information etc. I can go on.
Think of all the banking and
insurance that you do and start the list there. Go
over your bank records and cancelled cheques to add
to the list. If you still cannot find any
documentation on life insurance or annuities,
contact your life insurance agent or financial
advisor or the
Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association.
.
, email:
web:
|
| |
| Copyright mySeniorSite.ca. All
Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. |
| |
| |
|
 |
|
|
|
It's easy to stay up to date on the things that interest you. Just
