Laroux Peoples : Three Tips for Navigating a Loved Ones Estate
Guest blog written by Laroux Peoples
Losing a parent is never easy. Losing the first parent is even harder as families are often times left in the dark regarding the administration of the loved one’s affairs. A common misconception is that nothing needs to be done because the assets likely are rolling over to the surviving spouse, however there are things like removing the persons name from the bank account, changing over the vehicle etc., that gets missed.
3 Tips for Navigating a Loved Ones Estate:
1. Seek professional help. Contact an estates administration lawyer to help ease some of the stress associated with administration of an estate. A lawyer will be able to answer any questions you may have as well as point you in the right direction on who you need to contact regarding the cancelling of different services and managing assets.
2. Contact utility companies and service providers. Subscriptions and accounts such as cellphone plans, golf memberships and streaming services, to name a few, need to be cancelled to avoid incurring charges. Important identification, for instance, driver’s licences, social insurance numbers and passports must also be terminated to avoid identify fraud.
3. Manage finances. Talk to your bank advisor about having the joint accounts changed to individual ones. Contact your insurance companies to change policies into the surviving spouse’s name. A survivorship application may need to be completed if you owned property with your spouse and a real estate lawyer can help with that.
We hope that these three tips are helpful when considering what steps, you may need to take when navigating a loved one’s estate. To learn more about Laroux Peoples and her practice based out of Toronto, click here. To learn more about the services we offer here at ETP Canada, click here.
Laroux Peoples operates a remote law practice based out of Toronto, Ontario devoted to wills, estates and trusts servicing clients all over the province. With a J.D. from the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, an M.A. in Immigration & Settlement Studies from Ryerson University and a B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, she started her practice in 2014 out of a desire to make the estate process easy on families and busy professionals. Her goal is to make planning for the future streamlined for her clients and to help them navigate the challenges that can arise. On weekends (especially in the pandemic) she enjoys building Lego sets with her kids and playing escape room board games as a family.
This blog is not intended to be legal advice and should not be relied on as such. If you require legal advice, please contact a legal professional concerning your particular circumstances.