Quote:
Originally Posted by Derek Sutton
So this topic came up recently as my Uncle in Law was telling us about having recently dealt with his father's (small) estate. His Dad was living off his cash and investments and set up joint accounts with his son (my Uncle). Since all the accounts were set up as joint, everything was quick and easy and avoided probate and "all the paperwork". They went by what was stated in the will and Uncle just transferred what is in the accounts to his siblings accordingly. Could someone explain further on this? I never heard much of this before so I presume it is rather uncommon to set up joint accounts with your adult children? But Uncle said this is the way to go, and he will be doing this in the next few months likely with my wife (his niece) as the joint account holder/ executor as he has no children of his own.
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When it works, it works well.
When it doesn't, well, that's a lot of work.
Ensure that this is done as a plan with your accountant and with your lawyer rather than just as a whim based on what you've read online.
Also, no probate tax in alberta so the 'benefits' of this are less than in some other jurisdictions. Additionally, with the new electronic submission option available to lawyers I've had full probates approved within a week so the time savings are not that significant either.