Breakthrough Wills and Estate Planning Answers

#13 You Can Have Multiple Wills

Yes, you can have more than one will. This strategy is vital in dealing with business and foreign assets. In some cases, you can reduce Estate Administration Tax (EAT) taxes in Ontario by having multiple wills. However, having multiple wills is a complex arrangement that requires experienced legal advice before undertaking.

You can take advantage of multiple wills, for example, if you have a private family corporation with assets.

Here’s how it works.

You want your corporate shares and personal assets to pass to family members under your private will. Some call this a secondary will. These assets will not be subject to EAT. If this private will dealing with this group of assets is not filed with a court, it is also confidential.

This private will deals only with assets that do not require court certified appointments to be transferred.

You make a public will at the same time, making sure it does not revoke your prior will. This second public will covers your other public assets that do require estate certificates to transfer assets. Banks and financial institutions, for example, require court estate certificates to transfer assets to executors or beneficiaries.

Should You Be Afraid of Probate?

Probate costs can be a necessary in estate planning, especially if you are single. You may sacrifice a small portion of your estate to keep control of your affairs.

You can be better off in most cases by keeping ownership of your own home and assets as long as possible. Giving away assets early to avoid EAT may backfire on you if you find out that you need them before you die.

In many cases, spouses can avoid probate by ensuring that they record each other as surviving joint owners and designated beneficiaries. The trick is to double-check all your records to make sure they reflect this strategy.

How Your Estate Shrinks

EAT, estate expenses, income taxes, executors’ fees…

You can reduce all of these. I trust that seeing how big the tax bite can be relative to the other costs will help you realize the importance of tax planning.

What’s Left of Your Pie?

Remember how I had you fit all your assets into a pie?

Now you need to reduce the size of each expense slice of your pie to get a clearer picture of what’s going to be left over after taxes and expenses. These include your liabilities, debts and obligations.

What’s left is usually what you can deal with in your will.

You must remember that your joint owner or designated beneficiary could pass away before you or at the same time as you. This can increase the size of your estate.

This is why contingency planning is important. Most people don’t like to think about it, but you must know what would happen to your money if everyone passes away in a common disaster.

In the next section of posts, I will reveal the secrets to making your will and the proper way to choose executors and benefit beneficiaries.

Do you need help starting? Want to make your will but not sure what’s involved? I can help you. Contact me for a meeting.

I am an Ontario Certified Specialist in Estates and Trusts Law.