Intestate is the legal term that is defined as when a person dies without leaving behind a will. Cremation services are all too familiar with listening to the heirs’ dispute about who gets what and how. An insurance broker will tell you that your assets will be dispersed between your beneficiaries properly even if you die intestate but there may be some delays because of not having a will. Dying intestate does not mean that the government will take over all of the deceased individual’s assets but it does mean that the government will be able to decide who gets how much and when.
The Aftermath Relatives Face When Someone Dies Without A Will In Canada
At some point in time, writing a will was thought to be a significant investment that needed to be just right because it was a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. This is why, writing a will was put off until some point in the future in old age, closer to death. The problem is that nobody knows when they are going to die and there is a possibility that a person may not be of “sound mind” or have proper “testamentary capacity” especially as they get older. Here are some of the repercussions of dying intestate, or dying without a will in Canada.
- There cannot be an executor of a will if there is no will. In such a case the government decides who will be the “administrator” for the inheritance and this will not necessarily be the spouse.
- The court-assigned administrator, not a family member, decides which items to keep or sell off based on their discretion. The administrator can decide to sell off items that family members wanted to keep and there is nothing family members can do about it.
- The administrator will also be legally in charge of settling disputes between family members over the distribution of property, which are bound to occur.
- The spouse and children will not automatically inherit a majority of the deceased’s property. The spouse and children may not be named as the sole beneficiary according to the government assigned administrator.
- The spouse and children will fall heir to their share of the legacy but they will have no control over who gets how much or when. The children receive their bequest at the age of 18 or 19 based on the rules of their Province.
- The process for each heir to receive their inheritance will take time when the matters fall into the court’s hands.
- Pandemonium is bound to ensue when everyone tries to get their hands on whatever they can because of the delays in the government process.
- Being closely related to the deceased does not automatically mean that you will receive a larger share. The entire legacy is divided based on a government-established formula that does not focus entirely on kinship and does not change.
In some cases, young children might begin wondering who will be their legal guardian. All of these facts point to the reality that a person can leave their family members completely distraught and in a state of limbo if they have acquired consequential assets and not composed a will in their lifetime.
