Give | Spring 2025

ESTATE PLANNING

Protecting what matters most

How to ensure your wishes are followed when you’re gone

BY TRINA REHBERG BOYKO

W hether you have a prized collection of hockey cards or a piece of jewelry that’s a family heirloom, it’s important to ensure what matters to you is left in the right hands. When you have a family, that list becomes even more complex. From designating a caregiver for your children to ensuring your home is dealt with appropriately, you want to know that you can truly rest in peace. Now, it can be hard to face our own mortality, and some would rather just not deal with it. But what happens if you don’t? “If you die without a will, the Intestate Succession Act of Manitoba applies,” says Philippe Richer, lawyer and principal at TLR Law Office. “It dictates which family members, by relationship,

would have to apply to court to be named administrator.” First priority is given to a spouse, then adult children, then parents, and then siblings. Still, they have to apply—which means they may need to sign a bond and find sureties who will ensure that they, as administrator, will do their job appropriately. That can cost money that grieving families may not be able to afford. Meeting with a lawyer to draft a will is much less pricey and time- consuming and takes the burden off those who are already grieving. An administrator must be a Manitoba resident and should be able to manage your affairs when emotions are high. “Who is going to be responsible enough or level-headed enough at a time of mourning and grief?” Richer asks. “You need to think

about who will be able to take on the administrative task of managing an estate.” Richer says his firm does between 500 and 700 wills per year, and with the vast majority, family members are named as executors. “I, personally, like family to be involved because they’re the people who have the most interest in seeing the estate administered properly,” Richer says. That doesn’t mean it always goes smoothly. Richer describes a situation where someone decided to create his own will without legal help, and an ambiguity in the will led to litigation between his widow and her stepchildren. “This poor woman lost contact with these grandchildren she adored,” Richer says. “It’s not just sad, it’s tragic.”

Manitoba