Check under the bed for the important papers

I have so many interesting links and articles to share with you today, I'd better get started. Here is a link to a post by Audrey Miller at All About Estates. She lists 10 Things You Should Know About Your Parents' Finances. One of the items you need to know is the location of important financial papers. She is so right about this! I've been involved in estates where the deceased put his or her will in a "safe place", which ended up being so safe that nobody could find it until months after the person passed away. One was rolled up and squeezed into an empty shaving cream tin in the medicine cabinet. Another was pushed inside a hollow part of the deceased's bed's headboard. A few have been found in freezers, usually at the very bottom in a freezer bag. Click here to read the post.

Where should I store my Will?

When finding a good spot to keep your original Will, there are two basic goals to keep in mind. One is that you need a secure place where your documents will be safe from theft, fire, water damage and nosy people. The other is that your Will has to be accessible to your executor after you pass away.

The most popular place to keep a Will is the safe deposit box at the bank. Often people worry that although this is secure, the executor won't be able to get the Will after the testator has passed away. However, if the executor approaches the bank with the deceased's death certificate (particularly if he or she already has a photocopy of the Will), the bank staff will deal with this and produce the original Will.

Another secure place is the office of the lawyer who drew the Will. If you've appointed a trust company, you can also store your Will for free in the trust company's vault. If you choose either of these options, make sure you tell your executor where the original is being kept. Otherwise you run the risk that it will take weeks or months to find your Will, or that it won't be found at all.

Some people like to keep their documents in a locked safe in their home. Again the problem is acessibility. Will your executor be able to get into the safe after you've passed away? I've also noticed that although many safes are fire-proof, they are not water-proof and people who keep their safe in the basement sometimes find that their documents are water damaged.

It's not a good idea to keep your original Will with the general papers lying around your home. Doing so leaves it vulnerable to fire and loss, and open to the eyes of anyone who might be curious.

Your Enduring (Continuing) Power of Attorney should be kept together with your Will.

Storage of your Personal (health-care) Directive is another matter. This is a document that might be needed in a hurry. If you are in a car accident on a Friday night, your spokesperson can't wait for the bank or the lawyer's office to open on Monday to get your document. It's a good idea to have this document readily available in a desk drawer or filing cabinet.

Wherever you choose to store your original documents, make sure that you tell the person you've named that they are named. Otherwise, they won't even search for your document.

Where do you look for someone's Will?

Fairly often, we hear from individuals who are looking for the Will of someone who has passed away. Sometimes they aren't really sure whether the person ever made a Will or not, and in other cases they are positive that there is a Will but they just can't find it. Sometimes they even have a photocopy of a signed Will and can't find the original. In almost every case, the person doing the searching believes that he or she is the executor of the deceased person's estate.

The original Will is required in order to apply to the Court for a Grant of Probate. It is possible that a photocopy can be probated, in certain circumstances, and only if you can satisfy the Court that you really did look in every reasonable place for the original Will. In fact, if you want to probate a photocopy, you will have to swear under oath to the fact that you made an extensive search.

In Alberta we do not have a public or government registry or depository for Wills, though some other provinces do have that.

The following are some ideas about where to look for someone's Will if they are deceased. Keep in mind that if you are not the executor named in the Will, you have no right to have or even see the Will. If it turns out that the executor named is already deceased, others may then become entitled to have the Will for the purpose of applying for probate or administration.

- Check any safe deposit box owned by the deceased;

- Check all filing cabinets and safes in the deceased's home;

- Check filing cabinets at the deceased's office or shop (this will of course require the cooperation of the deceased's employer, for privacy reasons);

- Ask the manager of the deceased's bank to check with the trust branch of the bank. Not all banks have a trust branch, but some of Canada's top banks do. The trust branch keeps a fireproof vault of original Wills belonging to customers who have requested that service;

- Call any lawyer or law firm that you think the deceased dealt with, even if it appears that his or her dealings were for unrelated matters like a house purchase or divorce;

- If you have a copy of the Will but not the original, look at the signatures on the last page to see who the witnesses were. Most often, one of the witnesses is a lawyer. If so, you can find that lawyer or his or her firm and call there;

- If the lawyer listed on a Will is retired, call the Law Society for your province or territory. You may be given the lawyer's phone number. Alternatively, you may be advised of which lawyer or firm took on that lawyer's files when he or she retired;

- Call any accountant that you believe the deceased might have worked with;

- Call the deceased's ex-husbands or ex-wives to get the name of any lawyer that might have done a Will for them in the past;

- Call the Office of the Public Trustee;

- If you think the Will was very old, check with the Clerk of the Court of Queen's Bench. Though there is no current depository, there was one at one time and there is always an off chance that the Will you're looking for is there;

- Advertise in publications that lawyers read. Law firms that store original Wills check these publications on a regular basis to make sure that if any of the Wills in their vault belong to someone who has passed away, the executor is notified.

Good luck in your search.