Do a Will - If not for your family, then at least for your reptiles
Would it occur to you if you had nearly 200 reptiles living with you, that you really should make a Will? Recently in Ontario, this issue slithered into the Courts.
The National Post this week reported the story of a Welland, Ontario man who died, as a result of an unexpected stroke, in May at the age of 52. Uniquely, he was survived by 200 exotic reptiles. Unfortunately, he did not leave a Will. Without a Will, there was no named executor for his estate and no directions with respect to the division of his assets or care of his exotic pets. This resulted in litigation, which only recently settled.
If you die without a Will, you are considered to have died "intestate." Simply put, this means that statutory provisions decide how your assets will be divided. Any intentions you may have had for your assets, which technically include any animals you own, are not factored into the statutory distribution scheme.
In Ontario, if a person dies intestate, Part II of the Succession Law Reform Act governs who is entitled to their estate. As regular readers of our blog know, the order in which relatives of a deceased are entitled to inherit in an intestacy is, as follows:
- If there is a spouse (defined as a married spouse only) and no children, the spouse takes all.
- If there is a spouse and any children, the spouse gets the first $200,000.00 (the preferential share) of the estate. If there is only one child, the balance of the residue is divided between the spouse and the child equally. If there is more than one child, the spouse gets one-third of the balance of the residue and the children share the other two-thirds equally.
- If there is no spouse, the estate goes to the children equally.
- If there are no children, the estate goes to the deceased’s parents equally.
- If there no surviving parents, the estate goes to the deceased’s siblings equally; if a sibling has predeceased, that sibling’s share goes to his or her children.
- If there are no siblings, the estate goes to the deceased’s nephews and nieces equally.
- If there are no nephews or nieces, it goes to the next of kin of equal degree of consanguinity – in some cases, distant relatives who may have had no relationship with the deceased can end up inheriting.
- If there are no next of kin, the estate escheats to the Crown.
Having a thoughtfully considered and up-to-date Will is necessary not only to ensure that your intended beneficiaries share in your estate in a manner that it is appropriate and reflects your wishes, but also to ensure that your menagerie, should you have one, is provided for too.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the weekend,
