Planned changes to British Columbia’s laws on wills, estates and succession are to allow an estate’s land to be used sooner in the process of settling its debts.
Attorney General Michael de Jong on Monday reintroduced Bill 4, the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, which he said will cut the number of separate acts that involve estate law from seven down to just one.
The new legislation is expected to come into force only after the public and legal community have had time to review and prepare for it, expected in 2011.
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In terms of succession law that will affect farmers’ heirs when it comes time to distribute property, one of the province’s key changes will require land to be applied equally with personal property in paying off an estate’s debts.
Currently, the province said, if debts are owing and an estate doesn’t cover them, bequeaths of personal property are used first to pay the debts, followed by gifts of land.
Among other changes, the new law will grant courts power to ensure a deceased person’s last wishes will be respected, even if they’re contained in a document that does not meet the necessary requirements to be considered a will.
The new law is also expected to make it “faster and easier” to administer small estates, meaning those worth less than $50,000.
A number of “presumptions most people did not know about” will also be changed or erased in the new law, the province said. For example, a gift given during the life of a will’s author is currently presumed to be given in place of a gift in a will.
“The new legislation will not invalidate wills made before it comes into force, but will apply to the interpretation of existing wills,” the province said.
“The public, and lawyers and notaries working with estate laws, will greatly benefit from the improvements,” de Jong, the MLA for Abbotsford West, said in the province’s release.
“Among many changes, the legislation removes outdated provisions and will be easier for the general public to understand.”
