Wills, estates and succession

In 2003, the Ministry of Attorney General encouraged the British Columbia Law Institute to undertake a project involving a review of the law of succession in British Columbia for the pur- poses of reducing the number of separate enactments through consolidation and of simultaneously modernizing the law where reform is necessary or desirable. [...] The Project was conducted with the aid of a large group of volunteers drawn from the practising wills and estates Bar, the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia, and legal academics with expertise in the law of succession. [...] Reform of the Wills Act and the General Law of Wills This Report recommends the following major changes to the Wills Act and the non-statu- tory law of wills: • Introduction of a broad dispensing power to relieve against the consequences of a breach of the formal requirements for execution and attestation of a will. [...] The statutory life estate of the surviving spouse in the spousal home would be abolished in favour of a right to appropriate the spousal share against the spousal home at the option of the surviving spouse. [...] The role of the probate registry would be limited to entering a record of the filing of the small estate declaration in the civil regis- try database system and stamping and returning a copy of the small estate declaration.