A Will is a document which comes into effect on death. This document allows you to give instructions on the following:

1. How you want your property distributed.
2. Whom you would like to carry out the instructions in your Will ("Personal Representative")
3. Guardian for your children.

A Will ensures that your wishes are carried out after your death.

If you do not have a Will, the Alberta Government:

1. will decide how your Alberta assets are to be distributed (Intestate Succession Act)
2. will oversee the appointment of your Personal Representative
3. will oversee the appointment of Guardians for your children.

It is important to have a Will so the Court knows your intentions on these matters.

When a person lacks mental capacity to make decisions regarding their financial affairs, the Dependant Adults Act of Alberta allows the Court to appoint:


a) someone to look after the person's property and financial affairs ("Trustee"); and
b) someone to look after their personal affairs i.e. health care ("Guardian")

Such an application can be emotionally upsetting and expensive to the person's family. Once the appointment has been made, subsequent applications to the Court are required to ensure that all matters are being properly handled in the best interest of the Dependant Adult.

A document you sign called an Enduring Power of Attorney allows you to appoint someone ("Attorney") to look after your financial affairs. This document can become effective immediately or it can become effective only if you lose mental capacity as determined by a medical doctor.

A Personal Directive allows you to appoint someone ("Health Care Agent") who will look after your personal matters i.e. health care if you become mentally incapacitated.

The "personal matters" that the Health Care Agent may make decisions on behalf of the Maker include:

i) health care for the Maker;
ii) where the Maker is to live;
iii) with whom the Maker may live and associate;
iv) participation by the Maker in social, educational and employment activities; and
v) legal matters of the Maker.

The Health Care Agent is required to follow all known instructions of the Maker when making decisions on behalf of the Maker.

The Personal Directives Act allows the Maker to take control of his or her future care by appointing a Health Care Agent and providing specific instructions relating to the Maker's future care.

A properly prepared Personal Directive is now an important component of estate planning and can be prepared to compliment the provisions of your Last Will and Testament and an Enduring Power of Attorney.

If you require further information on the Personal Directives Act, or would like to have a Personal Directive prepared please contact a member of our estate department.

Generally, property between spouses is held in joint names. This means that, on the death of one of the spouses, the property will pass to the surviving spouse without the need for Probate. This keeps legal costs on estate administration to minimum.

Probate is a legal process, which results in the Grant of Probate. The Grant of Probate is a declaration confirming the validity of the Will and confirming the appointment of the Personal Representative named in the Will. The Grant of Probate allows the Personal Representative to transfer the estate assets pursuant to the terms of the Will.

If joint tenancy works well between spouses, can it work between parents and their children? It can be done but it requires careful planning. The transfer into joint names may create problems that are more costly than the probate fees trying to be saved.

Some of the potential problems in transferring property to a joint owner are:

For these reasons, you should contact a lawyer in our estate department prior to transferring property into joint names.

The term applies to the tax free transfer of property from one person to another. The term is often encountered in the context of transfers between spouses or between parents and children.

RRSP's for example can be transferred from one spouse to the other without triggering income tax on the RRSP. The transfer of farmlands between spouses and between parents and children can in certain cases be done without triggering capital gains tax which would otherwise be payable on the disposition of those lands at arm's length.

Please note: This material is intended to be general in nature. You should not undertake any of these procedures without the proper legal and accounting advice. Pritchard & Company LLP is experienced in these fields and works with all accountants in the City of Medicine Hat and surrounding area in the structuring and documentation of transactions such as those discussed above.

F.A.Q's

What is a "Residential Property Listing Agreement"?

This agreement is defined as:

The property may be listed as a MLS Listing or an Exclusive Listing. The Exclusive Listing allows the vendor's agent to sell the property without having to allow other agents to have the right to sell the property.

A Vendor should review the Listing Agreement for:

The most common type of financing that a purchaser enters into when purchasing a residential property is a real property mortgage. The mortgage should be reviewed by the mortgagor (purchaser) and all terms should be understood.

A review of the prepayment privileges set out in the mortgage should be a priority and those terms should be understood before the mortgagor executes the mortgage.

Cooperation, not confrontation

How will this happen?

What will you and your spouse do?

What will your lawyers do?

Benefits of the Collaborative Family Law Process:

How do I find a collaborative lawyer? You can:

When choosing a collaborative lawyer, ask if she or he is a member of the Association of Collaborative Family Lawyers in their area.

In this Process, you and your spouse would meet with a trained Family Law Mediator. You and your spouse would formally agree to stay out of the court system to solve your matrimonial differences.

Mediation is a way for you and your spouse to continue working together to solve the new issues that come with separation. The Mediator meets with both spouses at the same time. The Mediator helps you find the issues on which you already agree, then works with you and your spouse for the best solution to the other issues. You and your spouse would formally agree to stay out of the court system to solve your separation issues.

You and your spouse will also each need a lawyer to give you legal advice while you are in the Mediation Process and at the end of the Mediation Process to give you independent legal advice about any agreement you reach in the Mediation Process.

In the Mediation Process you and your spouse control the cost, timing and the result. The Mediation Process is private and confidential and takes an average of 2 to 6 months to reach a conclusion. The Mediation Process is also generally much less expensive than the Legal Process.

We have 4 trained and experienced Family Mediators at Pritchard and Co.:

If you and your spouse are interested in the Mediation Process, please contact one of our Pritchard and Co. Mediators to obtain additional information. We will need to speak to both you and your spouse if you wish to hire us to mediate for you.

If you or your spouse choose this option, you will be choosing to proceed through the court system to solve your separation issues. One of our experienced family law lawyers would represent you in preparing all of the necessary court documents and represent you in the courtroom as well. We would generally file a Statement of Claim for Divorce and Division of Matrimonial Property and ask the court to make a decision for you and your spouse about the issues of custody of and access to your children, child support, spousal support and division of your assets and debts.

In the Legal Process, you and your spouse do not control the cost, the process, the timing or the result. The lawyers and judges control all of these things. The Legal Process is a public process and everything heard and filed is public record.

It takes an average of from 1 to 4 years for the Legal Process to reach a conclusion. The Legal Process is generally, substantially more expensive than either the Collaborative Process or the Mediation Process.

Most contracts of employment are indefinite in time. An employer can terminate such a contract of employment without just cause, but he must provide reasonable notice or pay in lieu of notice, or a combination of both to the employee. Minimum standards of notice in such situations are found in the Employment Standards Code of Alberta, however the notice required by law is frequently in excess of those minimum standards such that an employee is entitled to receive greater notice or more pay in lieu of notice. Where there are employee benefits associated with the employment, compensation for loss of that coverage on termination of employment is also available to an employee.

Reasonable notice or pay in lieu is not required where the employment has been terminated for just cause. Written contracts of employment may also affect the amount of notice or pay in lieu of notice available to an employee, however such contracts cannot provide for less notice than that given in the Employment Standards Code.

For more information, please visit Employment Standards.

When an individual's employment is terminated by an employer without just cause, there is a duty upon the wrongfully dismissed employee to attempt to seek out and obtain comparable, alternate employment. If that employee brings an action against the employer for wrongful dismissal, the employer is entitled to reduce its exposure by the amount of income earned during the appropriate notice period by the employee. A failure by the employee to attempt to find alternate employment (the duty to mitigate) can result in a reduction in the amount of recovery that an employee would normally receive from that employer.

As well, if a wrongfully dismissed employee received Employment Insurance benefits for a period of time which that employee later receives compensation from his employer, either by way of settlement or Court Order, the employee is legally obliged to repay Employment Insurance any such amounts.

Employment law is essentially a form of contract law, which governs the legal agreements that people make. Any two people are entitled to make whatever agreement they wish with one another, and to include whatever terms. If John Doe agrees to provide gardening services to Mary Smith for a dollar an hour, that is his prerogative, and the agreement can be terminated whenever either of them desires.

However, if John Doe is hired by Mary Smith as an employee of her company, the Employment Standards Code (ESC) comes into effect. This Alberta legislation is intended to protect the public by preventing people from taking advantage of one another in the workplace. The ESC sets certain limits to the contracts that may be entered for purposes of employment - by prescribing minimum wages, for example, and setting conditions that relate to hours of work and holidays.