Finalizing your estate planning documents is an important step to ensuring that your affairs are in order to properly protect you and take care of your loved ones upon your passing.  Once you have your estate planning documents in place, you will need to decide where to keep them. 

We generally recommend that our clients keep their estate planning documents at our office in our vault.  Our vault is kept locked at all times and we are only authorized to release your documents upon certain circumstances.  For example, we can release your documents to you upon your request, or, to your executor upon your executor providing us with a death certificate and two pieces of valid, government issued identification.  We can also release your estate planning documents to a third party, such as a family member, if you authorize us to do so.  Again, the person picking up the documents would need to provide us with two pieces of valid, government issued identification.

Our practice is also to file a wills notice with Vital Statistics B.C.  A wills notice contains the following information:

• Your full legal name and date of birth;
• The date you signed your will;
• The location of your will; and
• The date the wills notice was filed with Vital Statistics.

Among serving other purposes, filing a wills notice can help your executor to locate your original will should they not know where it is located.

Another option for storing your estate planning documents is to keep them in your safety deposit box, if you have one.  If your estate planning documents are kept in a safety deposit box, your executor would need to contact the financial institution where the box is located to find out what is required to pick up your original documents upon your death.  Likely, they would need to show a death certificate and appropriate identification to access the box. 

Lastly, you can keep your documents at home in a safe place, such as an at home vault or filing cabinet.  We generally do not recommend this, as it can be easy to misplace original documents kept at home.  Your original documents are required for various uses (for example, your will is required for probate and your original power of attorney is required for registration with the Land Title Office), so it is important not to lose these documents.  Additionally, if you move, you must remember to file a new wills notice with Vital Statistics noting that the location of your will has changed.

Regardless of where you decide to keep your estate planning documents, we recommend that your will is registered with Vital Statistics, and that you advise your executor, attorney (for your power of attorney) and representative (for your representation agreement) where your documents are located should they need to access them.

Author: Jane Otterstrom 

This information is general in nature only. You should consult a lawyer before acting on any of this information. This information should not be considered as legal advice. To learn more about your legal needs, please contact our office at (250)448-2637 or any of our lawyers practicing in the area of wills and estates at the following:

Jane Otterstrom: jane@touchstone.law
Bennett Liddycoat: bennett@touchstone.law