Glossary - Wills and Powers of Attorney
In Family Law, Wills and Powers of Attorney
An equalization payment is money one married partner can sometimes get from the other partner after they separate or the other partner dies. Its purpose is to share the amount that the couple’s property increased in value while they were married.
Common-law partners usually don’t have a right to an equalization payment.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
Your estate is the property you own when you die. This includes real property, which is property like land and buildings. It also includes personal property, such as jewellery, furniture, and bank accounts.
Some property does not become part of your estate because it changes owners as soon as you die. Examples are a home you owned in joint tenancy with another person, or an investment that has a designated beneficiary.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
An estate trustee is someone you choose to carry out the directions in your will. An estate trustee is sometimes called an executor or personal representative.
Your estate trustee has to make sure that:
- your property goes to the people you’ve chosen
- your personal affairs, like paying debts and arranging your funeral, are dealt with
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
A Guardian of Property is someone who a court or the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee appoints to manage your money and property. This might happen if you’re not mentally capable of doing this. Or, if the attorney you named in your Power of Attorney for Property is not looking after your money and property properly.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
A Guardian of the Person is someone a court appoints to make personal decisions for you if you’re not mentally capable of making them. Their role is to make the decisions you would make for yourself. If the Guardian does not know what you would want, they must make decisions based on what they believe is best for you.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
Intestacy rules are the legal rules that say what happens to someone’s estate if they die without a will. In Ontario, these rules say that:
- a common-law partner does not automatically get a share of the estate
- a married partner does get a share
- children and other relatives might get a share
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
Joint tenancy is a way for 2 or more people to own real property together. When one of the owners dies, their share of the property goes directly to the other owners. It does not usually go into the estate of the person who died. This means that it’s not affected by their will or by the intestacy rules.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
A legacy is a gift of a specific sum of money to a person or organization in a will.
In Wills and Powers of Attorney
To be married or to have a marriage means that 2 people of the same or opposite sex had a marriage ceremony with someone that has the legal power to marry them. A marriage ends only by divorce, annulment, or the death of one of the partners. Being separated is not the same as being divorced.
