A stark reminder of the importance of having a will -- was driven home recently while working a chap who is now trying to find any surviving family members in another land before the local Public Trustee grabs the estate of a friend who recently died unexpectedly.
Many people (myself included) try to push the thought of dying away off in the shadows -- as far away as possible, but that can be a little risky as shown by this experience. His friend never thought he would died and so put off the idea of making a will until the last moment when doctors told him that he was not going to make -- that he was going to die within in days.
Although he hurriedly decided to leave his estate worth over $8,000,000 in property -- to a big aid organization. The local Public Trustee tried to claim that this will was written under duress and tried to have it declared void.
What the final outcome will be I'm not sure, but I do know that if this friend had taken the time to think things through he very likely would have written a will that left a least a portion of his estate to another organization that he was associated with -- and that they could have done a lot of good with it.
So, don't leave something like this to the last minute. There are far too many cases where people do and the Public Trustee here in B.C. steps in and take control of the estate -- which can mean big legal battles for surviving family members.
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