Calgary Estate Planning Lawyer: Why You Need a Will

Alberta Estate Planning Lawyer Explains the Importance of Planning Ahead

Video Transcript:

Steve Grover: 

You don't want the government to tell you where your money goes after you pass away.

Tom Mustin: 

What is estate planning and why is it so important? We're gonna talk to lawyer Steve Grover about that on today's Ask the Lawyer. Steve, thank you for joining us.

Steve Grover: 

Hi, nice to see you again. Thanks for having me again.

Tom Mustin: 

Always a pleasure, Steve. Now, I know your law firm handles personal injury cases in serious accidents, but lawyers at your firm also handle estate planning. So talk to us about what estate planning is and why it's so important.

Steve Grover: Yeah, we do do a lot of personal injury and sometimes there are quite a few wrongful death cases that come in. And, unfortunately, not only are we litigating the personal injury file, but sometimes people come in without a will and say their husband's deceased in a car accident by unfortunate circumstances. We do help with the grant of administration if you don't have a will. We go into that procedure. But estate planning is essentially, you spend your whole life working, accumulating wealth, buying stuff. And what you need, I recommend, is a will because you want to have direction of, when you pass on, where your money goes to, if it goes to your spouse, your kids. Also, estate planning also involves doing a power of attorney or if you're incapacitated, you can have someone step in your shoes and do your banking, do your affairs, say that you're in the ICU unit at Foothills Hospital in Calgary. And then there's also a personal directive where you direct someone to do something in your capacity also for a certain aspect. But I think estate planning is, part of personal injury, unfortunately, in wrongful death cases. But in generally, I recommend anyone out there to get involved in estate planning and have a will because you don't want the government to tell you where your money goes after you pass away.

Tom Mustin: 

Exactly. And you just talked about the components of an estate plan. When it comes to estate plans, does your firm have fixed prices there or do you offer payment plans or even discounts?

Steve Grover: 

Yeah, we do have fixed prices and we don't really focus in the area. In law school, I was quite interested in estate planning. I just found it interesting. You should have a will and you determine what you do in life. You determine what type of job you have. But you should also determine where your money goes when you unfortunately pass on. And our office does estate planning. We have a lawyer that does it. I do it myself. We have fixed prices. We're not here to overcharge people, I think our prices are pretty reasonable. At the same time, unfortunately, right now we're going through a recession. We just came out of COVID-19, and I know a lot of people don't have a lot of money. And I don't want someone to go to Staples and get that estate planning book for dummies, I don't recommend that and just get a standard estate will or personal directive. I will work with people if you need 12 months, six months to pay off the bill on an estate planning package, like doing a will, personal directive, and power of attorney, I'll gladly help you out. Because I think it's really important that people realize that you should have a will to determine where your estate goes after you pass on.

Tom Mustin: 

And I think people who are on the fence about it now not wanting to spend the money are very gratified by what you just said there. So in your opinion, it's well worth the time invested to have an attorney help you out here.

Steve Grover: 

Well, I'll give you an example. On the way to work, I know my wife gets mad at me, but I will stop to Starbucks or somewhere for a coffee, and there's a whole line of people out there. And that's $3-$5 a day that you're spending in coffee. And you spend your whole life working and getting educated and saving your money and paying for your children's education and paying off your mortgage, and I just don't understand why wouldn't you spend up to a thousand dollars for estate planning package? So you know in in your own mind how your estate and the money you've accumulated will be dispersed rather than trusting the government. And I know everyone doesn't like big governments and they don't want government to tell us what to do. But this is an opportunity to get a will, personal directive, a power of attorney and have a determination of who takes care of your affairs if you're incapacitated or where does your money go or your house goes when you pass on. So I think it's really important that you control what you do in life, but you should also control what happens after you pass on. And I just think people just need to realize. I'm shocked that people come in unfortunately, someone's passed on and they don't have a will in it.

Steve Grover: 

But you know what? They have all the toys at home, they have cars and TVs, but you won't spend up to a thousand dollars for estate planning package. Especially our firm will actually do a payment plan and help you pay it off and make sure you have that in place. So if something happens, unfortunately your family has closure to see where it goes.

Tom Mustin: 

Well, Steve, always great to talk to you. We appreciate the insight.

Steve Grover: 

Thank you. Thanks. Have a great day.

Tom Mustin: 

You too. And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been Steve Grover. If you want to ask Steve about your situation, call the number you see on the screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Mustin for Ask the Lawyer.

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