_ By GORDON HARDY

When the dead are laid to

_ rest, their distraught sur-

vivors are all too often faced
with additional burdens due

to lack of an adequate will.

This can mean
delays in inheritance

can mean the gifts the
@eceased had always in-
tended to make to special
people just don't | reach
them. Or that a court will
decide who has custody of
orphaned children.

An ordinary will drawn up
with the help of a lawyer
only costs about $35 to $50
yet a surprising number of
Canadians die leaving an
untidy estate puzzle, to the
despair of their families,
friends and business part-
ners.

Some die without wills.
Others teave behind an-
-tiquated wills that do not
account for more recently-
acquired assets. Often the
deceased’s family cannot
determine how big the estate
is because there is no in-
ventory with the will.

Perens es SSS SS SSE

‘CAR 54, HAVE YOU finished making the head yet?” However, in spite of the ap-
pearance, the RCMP cruiser was simply pushing this monstrous snowhall off the road ©
at the comer of Mountain Highway and 27th late Friday night when the photographer
happened along. (Terry Peters photo)

Vancouver lawyer Paul

Beckmann, who handles
wills and estates, says he’s

d@ cases where baffled
survivors “just come in here
and dump Dad’s desk drawer
on my desk and tell me to go
to it’.

If you die without a legally
binding will, or ‘intestate’,
your property will be
disposed of according to a
set of provincial regulations
in a time-consuming process
that may go not as you would
have wished it.

If you dic intestate and
have no living relatives or a
spouse, everything you own
simply becomes the property
of the government.

Otherwise, the provisions
of the Administration Act
determine who will inherit
your estate, according to
classes of people. Wives,
husbands and children have

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priority in claiming an estate
if there is no will.

If none of these can claim,
then the mother and father
can. Following these,

PRIOR TO THE LAST MAJOR PRICE INCREASE
deceased and their children
are entitled to claim. The.
estate is divided up equally
among members of the

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There is some provision
under the law for common-
law spouses and _ their
children. If the common-law
spouse has lived with and
been supported by the

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nai LEASE RATES AVAILABLE CRE SES.

Likewise, the illegitimate
children of a man who dies
intestate have a claim on his
estate but only if he was
physically or financially
responsible for them at least

CONTINUED ON PAGE 47

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