Wills, Enduring General Power of Attorneys, Personal Directives

Deborah L. Barron has 30 years of experience advising clients in formulating these essential and often emotional decisions and drafting these documents for you.  She will be pleased to share all of her experience to assist you in determining what is best for you in your particular situation and putting your wishes into effect.

Please refer to the Will Questionnaire under the “Forms” tab of www.deborahbarronlaw.com and complete the relevant portions.  Please email or fax this Will Questionnaire to Deborah L. Barron ahead of time, if possible.  By doing so, you will be able to provide Deborah with your instructions for these documents as clearly and succinctly as possible.  Deborah will then be able to promptly contact you with a personalized quote and answer any questions that you or she may have, usually allowing the process to be completed in one appointment so as to inconvenience you as little as possible.

You may be surprised what a Will can do for you!  Wills can:

1. allow you to choose who will inherit which of your assets
2. name a guardian for your minor children
3. let you choose the executor for your estate
4. give you a say over how old your children must be before they inherit your assets
5. permit your business to continue operating
6. allow your spouse or children to continue residing in the matrimonial home
7. save you money in taxes and legal fees
8. get your affairs resolved much sooner than if you did not have a Will
9. save your grieving relatives paperwork, time and expense in resolving your financial affairs

Deborah L. Barron usually is also asked to prepare two other testamentary documents at the same time as a Will, an Enduring General Power of Attorney and a Personal Directive.

The Enduring General Power of Attorney allows you to specify a trusted representative who is empowered by you to sign your financial documents if you are temporarily or permanently unable to do so.  As with Wills, it is important to note that this document is not of use just for seniors.  It is essential for an adult of any age, for example if one undergoes surgery and one is under the influence of morphine or other strong medication for a period of time. In these circumstances, you may not realize that a financial institution will not allow a spouse, child or close relative to sign cheques, obtain access to safety deposit boxes or sign important legal documents such as mortgages, business agreements or leases, on your behalf.  An Enduring General Power of Attorney lets you rest assured that illness will not put your financial affairs on hold. 

If you become mentally incompetent after signing an Enduring General Power of Attorney, Alberta law provides that this document does not become invalid, but continues in full force.  This means that your family will not have to go through a potentially embarrassing and expensive procedure in Court of having you declared a dependant adult.  With an Enduring General Power of Attorney, you can deal with this eventuality privately and have control ahead of time who your attorney or attorneys will be.

The Personal Directive is another essential document that allows you to specify an attorney or attorneys to make personal and medical decisions on your behalf, if you are temporarily or permanently unable to do so. As with the Enduring Power of Attorney, you can rest assured that you have chosen the trust family member who you believe will best represent your wishes.  This may be the same person who you chose to be your attorney for the Enduring General Power of Attorney or it can be someone else.  It is  strongly recommended that your Personal Directive appoints alternative attorneys, in case one of them is unavailable.  Usually a spouse will be the first choice for married people, or a sibling or siblings for singles.  Your alternative choice may be the family member or members who you believe most closely shares your values, who will be most calm and collected if you are very ill or it may be two of your children who work very well together.  It is also helpful if your chosen attorneys reside locally.

The Personal Directive can also include a “Living Will.”  This is a paragraph that may be included within a Personal Directive, if you so choose.  It is basically a “D.N.R.” or “do not resuscitate” clause, if one is familiar with the medical terminology.  Deborah L. Barron has drafted a paragraph that allows you to state ahead of time, that if you are gravely ill and your physicians have determined that there is no reasonable hope of recovering your mental faculties, that you do not want to be kept alive on life support.  On the other hand, Deborah’s paragraph does provide for you to receive measures of comfort to relieve pain and to allow you to interact with your family at such a critical time.

It is Deborah L. Barron’s experience that if her clients want a living will included, he or she feels very strongly in favour and requests this paragraph to be included without any hesitation.  If you aren’t sure, then Deborah suggests that you leave it out.  If you change your mind in the future, you can contact Deborah and she can revise the Personal Directive to add or delete the Living Will paragraph.