Wills and Estate Planning
Complete Estate Plans from$600.00 (or $800.00 per couple)
You probably already know the risk of not having a complete estate plan with a Will, Power of Attorney and Personal Directive.
If you don’t appoint a guardian for your minor children in your Will, you won't have a say over who cares for them if you pass on. You won’t have any control over how your assets are divided. And if you lose mental capacity from an accident or disease, you won’t have any say over who looks after your affairs or your healthcare.
You know it is important to have a proper Will and estate plan in place for your security, and to protect your loved ones. And you don’t want the risk of trying a do-it-yourself kit or a discount paralegal service.
Good thing you found us.
Our options
At RLC, we provide two options when it comes to your estate plan (Wills, Powers of Attorney and Personal Directives), both at prices significantly less than other law firms or legal service providers.
Online SIMPLE Estate Plan
Our first option we call the Simple Online Estate Plan service, which provides a simple plan for people with straightforward family and financial circumstances. Simply click the link below for our online form, which will guide you through the basics of the estate planning process and take your information. Once your information is submitted you will be contacted by our office to review your information and schedule a 1 hour face-to-face meeting with the lawyer to sign your documents.
This convenient option is $600.00 for an individual, or $800.00 for a couple.*
TRADITIONAL ESTATE PLAN
Our Traditional estate planning service is best for people who would like more face time with the lawyer. Start by clicking on the Traditional Estate Plan link below to provide your contact information. We will contact you to schedule an initial consultation to take your instructions and answer your questions. We will meet again at a later date to review and sign your Will, Power of Attorney and Personal Directive.
Our price for this service is $800.00 for an individual, or $1,000.00 for a couple.*
To contact us for a traditional plan, please call 403-247-2111 to set up our initial appointment, or click here to email us:
Making an Estate Plan
A Will is a document that sets out what happens to your assets and who looks after your children if you pass on. The main purpose of a Will is to determine who should receive gifts from the estate (the collection of property and assets after debts are paid). It can also give burial (or cremation) instructions and can appoint a guardian for minor children.
The person making the Will is called the testator, the person(s) looking after the testator’s estate is called the personal representative(s) (the new term for executor), and the people who receive gifts from the estate are called beneficiaries.
GUARDIANSHIP
If you are a parent with children under the age of 18, a Will is the best and most efficient way for you to determine who will be responsible for your children if you pass on. This person is called a guardian, and they are automatically appointed upon your passing without the need for a court order or other formalities. You can name one or more people as guardians. This person or people are responsible for where your children live, their education, their activities, and their healthcare, and will be allowed to access estate funds in order to look after your children.
GIFTS TO BENEFICIARIES
People often have difficulty deciding how to divide their assets, and may overthink this part of the will. But the process does not need to be complicated. Most wills are “simple” wills, meaning they have a simple and efficient structure for gifting assets or dividing the estate. If you are in a relatively uncomplicated family situation and your assets are located in Alberta, chances are that a simple will can work for you.
For people with more complicated assets or family situations, or who may want to include gifts to people other than their spouse or children, we recommend the more traditional approach to estate planning. In this process, we hold more meetings with clients and spend more time drafting the documentation which result in higher a fee, but our costs are still typically hundreds of dollars less than what most law firms charge for the same service.
PowerS of Attorney and Personal DirectiveS
A Power of Attorney and Personal Directive are often considered your “living Will”, meaning that they take effect while you are still alive, if you lose mental capacity. These are separate documents and, due to their importance, they are included as standard in all of our estate plans.
The Power of Attorney appoints a person, the attorney, to look after your finances. They can pay your bills, maintain your home and invest money on your behalf.
The Personal Directive appoints an agent to look after your person, allowing them to decide where you reside, what activities you take part in and the healthcare you receive. The Personal Directive also sets out your end of life instructions, which tells the agent whether or not you want to be kept alive by artificial means or for pain medication to be administered.
For more information, or if you’d like to arrange for a consultation, please call us or click here:
*Prices quoted are for simple wills and estate plans. If you require a more complicated plan, additional charges may apply. All prices subject to GST.