Trusteeships

Relevant links

People Law School Health and Personal care

https://www.peopleslawschool.ca/category/plan-your-future-care/health-personal-care/

Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia (PGT) office

Senior First

. While I would urge you to ask Carmalita. 604.660.4444 / 604-775-0208 at the PGT office and Jen (she is the spokeswoman for PGT and VCH specifically for me) I will briefly point out that when there is an orphan child with estate to him name or an elderly person due to mental or physical condition becomes incapable doing his own banking and financial/legal matters his funds are put in a trust account a trustee (often member of family) is appointed to that like a Power of Attorney holder. She would want you to pay for a lawyer to become my trustee but our job is to make them pay the lawyer. At some point you would need to understand the details involved in the process if you consent to become my trust account manager.

This topic is very complicated and has many ramifications and of high public relevance so tonight I will make a webpage and post details at this link so check it out tomorrow or later on. NO RUSH If you have an hour tonight or another night you can delved into some details at this link https://www.trustee.bc.ca/

Check that link and also my page on trust accts and tell others to read that as it is common public interest information and all those over 40 should look into this. https://bit.ly/TrustAccts

An short overview of what is a Trust account or Trusteeship or Guardianship

There are in place laws in democracies that deal with situations for adults who become incapacitated to care for themselves, earn income, manage their estate and control their health access etc. These laws roughly fall in the following categories

1. Guardianship apartments for the custody and control of the person which is mostly done in the context of infants esp. if orphaned.

2. Trusteeship, committeeship appointment for the control of the property.

3. Representative agreements or Power of Attorney granting.

4. Healthcare representation agreement and end of live decision making.

5. Estate will relate laws that trigger after death of the person when the person is not available to assert his or her rights on the property left behind.

This is intended to be an overview or primer on this extensive topic of what is referred to as Estate law and there are special courts like family courts for divorce matters, and called Probate Courts which deal only with estate law matters of legal disability and contested wills etc. Because there is no need for a member of pubic to become familiar with the details of estate law in which general lawyer require to specialize and be certified and take the cases to Probate Courts where they exist, otherwise the Supreme Courts deal with these matters of guardianships, trusts, bankruptcies and contested wills etc.

This dissertation would therefore be limited to provide a fairly compressive overview of what a member of pubic as legal entity needs to know so that the headaches and costs that become inevitable through legal fees etc., in the absence of a timely prepared documents can be saved. This diligence helps with dignified exit from the world at the end of life and saves the disputes and ill will that could arise between siblings or other claimants to the inheritance of a deceased person and such matters.

What is intended to be conveyed most earnestly is to know that these laws and institutions or entries like Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia (PGT), Estate lawyers, Probate Courts exist and there is a need to take diligent steps to protect one’s interest in late life and the exercise of discretion in the disposition of the estate especially when assignment of that is intended to be advanced to charities, churches or other faith organizations etc., of own choosing. Those with close to zero or a negative financial net worth would not need to bother much about it however given that in their later dependency from disability years they would be exposed to humiliation and suffering from neglect unless a compassionate member of family chooses to step forward and take upon himself or herself the it however cost and burden on time and resources on him in providing the supportive care.

The importance of this topic that is subsumed in the Estate and disability law lies in the fact that global population is undergoing a demographic shift as people are living longer and millions of seniors are being added to the humanity and the disease prevalence is also on the rise such that while we are living longer, we are also living sicker. My interest in this issue is from the angle of promoting health and wellness to limit pre-terminal disability. And there is hope that outlining the dark side of the later decades of life would prompt people to adopt the healthspan promoting lifestyle where one remains sharp until a few months prior to demise, with the exception of sudden accidental death of course in a MVA for example. Even the head injury impacted survivors of MVAs can become mentally disabled and need a guarding or committee. There is no real distinction between these two terms and most jurisdiction do not even use th term committeeship that is a favorite of the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia (PGT)

Morals to take home from this treatise is

1. It is never too soon to draft a short will that can be done in a DIY fashion by purchasing or downloading a template and fill it in as soon as there is a sum of few thousand in the saving or checking account of a person.

2. There is enough unpredictability of the continuation of life and of legal capacity to manage the property and make healthcare decisions that developing a representative agreement or appoint someone as an enduring and comprehensive power of attorney or power of attorney limited to financial matters only or healthcare and end of life diction making only.

3. In some cases, even more than one representative or people with Power of Attorney can be appointed.

4. One must not shy away from these decisions that might impact events after the death due to fears of contemplating of own demise given its inevitability.

5. Instead of operating under the presumption that the loves ones or the members of close family would step in to protect the person and estate it is better to assume that they may not and take appropriate steps to protect the legal rights of one’s person and of property.