Life & Legacy Planning

What is Estate Law/Planning all about?

Who needs to consider Life & Legacy Planning?

“Estate Law” is an area of law concerned legal arrangements to control your property and person both in this life and the next. We prefer to call it Life & Legacy Planning.

Every Nova Scotian who wants to optimally ensure that their person, their property, and their loved ones are protected to the extent possible under the law needs to think about Life & Legacy Planning.

Nobody knows when death will knock on their door and we all have responsibilities that won’t die when we do. A Will can help you take control of your assets on your death, as can trusts (both during your lifetime and on death).

Power of Attorney documents allows someone to give legal authority and power to a trusted individual to help us manage our financial responsibilities. Who is going to pay the bills and make sure taxes get filed? There are pitfalls to putting property or bank accounts into joint names and a power of attorney document is often the very best solution. There are different types of Power of Attorney documents and you should talk to a lawyer to appreciate the differences.

Personal Directives allow you to control how your body is treated and respected should you be in an accident or otherwise rendered unable to make your own decisions about your body. For example, no vegetarian wants to start being fed meat just because they were in a car accident.

and can help you minimizes taxes.

A Designation of Residence document can help prevent Social Services from coming after the value in your home should you need to go into long-term care.

Put simply, every Nova Scotian should think about Life & Legacy Planning.

If you cannot afford to see a lawyer or would like more information, I encourage you to visit the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia’s website for more information.

What about online alternatives?

You get what pay for with estate planning. Optimal estate planning solutions for individuals requires a deeply personal and professional assessment of their unique circumstances. Only a lawyer can provide a solution that fits; the off-the-rack, one-size-fits-all approach of online alternatives will simply never fit as snug and are more susceptible to errors and omissions.

What to expect at Burton?

The tailored solutions at Burton Law will be optimized to fit our clients’ circumstances. Our lower operating costs enable us to offer the superior product of a trusted lawyer while at the same time competing on cost with online alternatives.

Getting help from your lawyer shouldn’t have to be painful. David Burton has spent his entire legal career dealing with highly sensitive personal matters for his clients. This experience allows David to ask the tough questions, often on sensitive personal matters, in a calm and sensitive manner. So meet with David to get the life and legacy planning advice and results that you need without the agony!

What documents should every Nova Scotian consider getting?

Burton Law offers the full compliment of Nova Scotia estate planning documents, including: