Wills & Powers of Attorney

[gretzky99]

Anyone ever complete a Will or Power of Attorney (POA)??
I have a few questions.......

1) I know for a Will and POA (both for Property and Personal Care), the law requires two witness signatures on each form.
My question is, can the witness signatures for a Will and Powers of Attorney be from the grandchildren?
Assume the grandchildren are over 18 yrs and they are NOT being appointed as a Power of Attorney nor are they beneficiaries in the Will.

2) Can the person who was appointed POA for Property for Mr.XX simply provide the POA document to a bank and indicate that Mr.XX is mentally incapable of making financial decisions, show photo ID, and make financial transactions at that bank? Will banks accept a POA document?
I know for sure that a POA does NOT have to be signed/witnessed by a lawyer, nor does a POA have to be registered with the Ministry.

3) I don't think a Will has to be registered either as long as it is signed by two witnesses (and again, it does NOT have to be a lawyer)......correct?? :confused:

[aimfox]

Never did. Perhaps you can try googling for sources since I have nothing to help you with.

[gretzky99]

anyone? anyone? :confused: :confused:

[westernartic]

Anyone ever complete a Will or Power of Attorney (POA)??
I have a few questions.......

1) I know for a Will and POA (both for Property and Personal Care), the law requires two witness signatures on each form.
My question is, can the witness signatures for a Will and Powers of Attorney be from the grandchildren?
Assume the grandchildren are over 18 yrs and they are NOT being appointed as a Power of Attorney nor are they beneficiaries in the Will.

2) Can the person who was appointed POA for Property for Mr.XX simply provide the POA document to a bank and indicate that Mr.XX is mentally incapable of making financial decisions, show photo ID, and make financial transactions at that bank? Will banks accept a POA document?
I know for sure that a POA does NOT have to be signed/witnessed by a lawyer, nor does a POA have to be registered with the Ministry.

3) I don't think a Will has to be registered either as long as it is signed by two witnesses (and again, it does NOT have to be a lawyer)......correct?? :confused:

1)If a wii is not signed by a lawer its will not hold up in court.

2)You more or less will require a note for a docter etc claiming so.

[gretzky99]

1)If a wii is not signed by a lawer its will not hold up in court.

2)You more or less will require a note for a docter etc claiming so.

1) that is NOT true. A Will does not have to be signed by a lawyer at all. A lawyer does not have to be one of the two witness signatures.

2) Do you this for a fact or are you just assuming? What specifically is this "note" called?

[takethat200210]

I strongly advise you go speak to an estate lawyer because it can be quite complicated depending on your situation, but speaking generally:

- a lawyer need not be involved at all for a will to be valid so long as your will is executed in front of two witnesses who are not beneficiaries of the will. The witnesses should each swear an affidavit of execution at the same time so that when it's time to probate the will, the witnesses need not be called as witness to attest that they witnessed the will. (To minimize the impact if any of the witnessed dies) The affidavits would serve this purpose.

- a lawyer need not be involved in a power of attorney. Grandchildren can definitely be appointed as attorneys - so long as they consent to assuming this responsiblity in addition to being 16 years of age and old and of sound mind.

- as to your second question regarding handing a power of attorney to a bank, you cannot use the Power of attorney for Personal Care for this purpose. You need the person to execute a Continuing Power of Attorney for Property. Criteria are slightly different than POW for personal care (ie. one needs to be at least 18 years of age). Also, the grantor should indicate when the POW for Property becomes effective (ie. upon execution of the document or upon being deemed legal incapacitated). As far as I know, a continuing power of attorney for property that fails to state when it becomes effective is deemed to be effective once the document is signed. That's why it's better to consult a lawyer than doing it yourself or using a kit.

Hope this helps.

[Kommander_KornFlakes]

-
Your witnesses cannot be your own family, they have to be friends or professionals such as dentists or your doctor.

Case-in-point: I grab my two kids and brainwash them to my liking and bring them to a lawyer to give me power over their Dad's assets. To prevent this, your witnesses have to be non family members.
-

[takethat200210]

Kommander, I don't quite understand your case in point. The witnesses have no say in the affairs of the grantor's property. (I presume you were referring to the continuing power of attorney for property.) The witnesses are merely people who witness the execution of the power of the attoney. The key person that one should brainwash (if that's your intention) is the appointed attorney as it's the attorney who has control of the assets.

So, I don't entirely agree with your statement that a witness cannot legally be a family member to the grantor, although it's certainly easier to have third parties to witness the document who don't potentially have an interest in the assets.

[westernartic]

1) that is NOT true. A Will does not have to be signed by a lawyer at all. A lawyer does not have to be one of the two witness signatures.

2) Do you this for a fact or are you just assuming? What specifically is this "note" called?

I have hands on experence in this matter.We had a very ill family member.

1)We were told the will had to be signed by a lawer.

2)Yes we had to got to a docter to have a letter.To say the the person in question is unfit.

We did go to the lawer and he said the same thing.For this to hold up you need a legal council to sign it.

[Nikita]

A will does not have to be witnessed by a lawyer. In fact, if you had a lawyer draft the will she/he would more often than not have a couple secrectaries witness the signing. A holograph will is completely legal and enforceable as long as the signing procedure is done properly. Anybody can witness the testator's signing except for benficiaries and executors.

Most banks have their own POA forms, you should speak to someone at your bank to find out what their practice is. It's usually a simple one-page document. Sucks when you've gone to the trouble of preparing a POA for property only to find when you need to use it that your bank won't accept it.

[westernartic]

Our issue was medial not so much the will its self.

[st7860]

you could even get a will kit from the bookstore but for something like that its worth hiring a lawyer for it if you have anything more than a bank account to pass on.

[Nikita]

you could even get a will kit from the bookstore but for something like that its worth hiring a lawyer for it if you have anything more than a bank account to pass on.

Agreed. Will kits/holograph wills are best used for small estates and simple distributions. Anything more complex should be done by a lawyer.

[stealth]

Just to clarify, having a POA just means that IF someone becomes incapacitated, that you are the person/people who they entrust to make decisions on their behalf. It does not mean the person has signed away their rights to yet at that moment.
It is meaningless until that person is officially declared incapacitated. Then and only then, can it be used for anything.

I personally, wouldnt DIY something as important as this, just in case someone with an interest to be unscrupulous comes along, it isnt worth risking an open loophole.