Four Phases of Executor (and POA) Responsibility
The lifecycle of an estate can be understood as an evolution across four phases: 1) Pre-POA, 2) POA, 3) Executor and, 4) Post-Executor.
Below is an overview of the services we offer across each phase. You can choose the specific support that best fits your needs.
Note: Our minimum service offering is a 1-hour meeting ($250). Clients are billed in half-hour increments subsequently (rounding up). We will always strive for client satisfaction in respect of billing. Note that advisory fees such as ours are paid by the estate, not by the executor personally.
Pre-POA
During capacity
Estate Plan Review
We help you examine the current plan for tax saving opportunities, potential problems or bottlenecks in administration, and personal liability risks for the executor. We can also help with complexities arising from family cottages, cross-border assets, and business succession.
Digital Security and Scam Prevention
The elderly are constantly inundated with attempts to defraud them of their savings. The various scams come in many forms. Named POAs and executors may feel powerless to stop the leakages or protect loved ones from losing their retirement savings. We can help by identifying practical solutions that protect your loved ones while helping them to maintain valuable autonomy in their lives.
POA Phase
Support while acting as Power of Attorney
Information Meetings for POAs
We provide clear, practical information sessions to help you understand your responsibilities and options as POA. This includes guidance on important decisions, asset management, dealing with institutions (banks, insurance companies, retirement homes, health care providers, etc.), and strategies for conflict avoidance.
Assistance With Planning Family Meetings
Being named POA often means you will need to guide conversations with family members, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders to reach consensus for important decisions, while avoiding personal liability issues. We can help you prepare by providing you with the information you need to consider decision alternatives. We can also help you to develop clear meeting agendas, realistic objectives, and negotiating tactics so you can lead these meetings effectively and reach the best possible outcomes.
Downsizing Assistance
We can help you to plan a downsizing transition, connecting you with the right people for the right things, while also helping to coordinate the overall project with all its moving pieces. We can also support a downsizing engagement with financial analysis.
Patient Advocacy and Elder Abuse Prevention
Whether one is dealing with health care professionals or care-givers, POAs may find themselves in situations where they are not happy with the course of things but are struggling to gain control. We help POAs to successfully advocate for their loved ones in order to ensure they receive the best possible care while also ensuring nothing untoward is going on.
Delegated Task Support
We can take on or coordinate specific administrative tasks and professional services so you don’t have to handle everything yourself. This includes working with lawyers, accountants, banks, and other institutions to keep the process moving forward efficiently.
Executor Phase
Guidance through estate administration
Information Meetings for Executors
We provide clear guidance on your duties and responsibilities as executor. This includes a detailed overview of required tasks, filing deadlines, procedural requirements, and how to effectively work with institutions such as banks, insurance companies, and government offices. You’ll also receive timely referrals to the right professionals when needed.
Project Management Assistance
Administering an estate is a complex project with many moving parts. We help you stay organized by coordinating with professionals, maintaining clear processes, avoiding common pitfalls, and providing timely reminders about next steps and upcoming deadlines.
Assistance with Planning Meetings with Beneficiaries
As executor, you have a fiduciary duty to keep beneficiaries informed and will ultimately need their approval on the estate accounting, expenses, and your compensation. We help you prepare so you can lead focused meetings, communicate effectively, build consensus, and minimize the risk of conflict or litigation.
Delegated Task Support
There is a great deal to manage as executor. Where it makes sense, we can step in to handle or coordinate specific tasks so you are not left carrying the full burden alone.
Post-Executor
Next steps after estate settlement
Information Meetings for Trustees
For those who will continue to serve as trustees for minors, family trusts, or other long-term arrangements after the estate is settled, we offer practical guidance on your ongoing duties. These sessions help trustees understand their responsibilities, avoid breaches of fiduciary duty, manage relationships with beneficiaries, and navigate situations involving the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. We also support individuals seeking clarity on their rights within a trust.