Area of Practice |Individuals and Estate Planning
We prepare wills and estate plans that reflect your family, assets, and intentions, with attention to probate, succession, incapacity, and later estate administration issues.
Estate planning, probate, trusts, and disputes
For more than 75 years, Ratcliff has advised individuals, families, executors, trustees, business owners, and Indigenous Nations across British Columbia. We assist with straightforward and complex estate matters, including private companies, significant real estate, assets outside British Columbia, beneficiaries with disabilities, reserve land succession, family conflict, and contested estates.
Focus Areas Clear guidance for estate planning decisions
We prepare incapacity planning documents that authorise trusted people to manage financial, legal, health, and personal care decisions when needed.
We advise on lifetime and will-based trusts for blended families, minors, vulnerable beneficiaries, business owners, significant real estate, private companies, and assets outside British Columbia.
We help shareholders and family business owners coordinate estate plans with corporate structures, including primary and secondary wills, share freezes, family trusts, shareholder agreements, and intergenerational transfers.
We support executors and administrators with probate applications or grants of administration, beneficiary reporting, notices to creditors, estate accounting, formal passing of accounts, asset transfers, and CRA clearance certificates.
We act in wills variation claims, contested executorships, trustee disputes, capacity challenges, and beneficiary disputes, with practical advice on resolution and litigation strategy.
We advise Indigenous individuals, families, Bands, and Treaty Nations on wills, reserve land succession, and estate administration under the Indian Act and provincial estate law, including community workshops.
We help families use discretionary trusts and integrated estate planning to provide long-term support without putting provincial disability benefits at risk.
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Frequently Asked Questions Planning with clarity and care
In most cases, yes. A will lets you choose your executor, decide who receives your assets, appoint guardians for minor children, and reduce uncertainty for your family.
Private companies, significant real estate, blended families, beneficiaries with disabilities, foreign beneficiaries, assets outside British Columbia, family conflict, or First Nations estate issues may require more detailed planning.
The right choice depends on the assets, beneficiaries, and complexity of the estate. Ongoing trusts, business assets, blended family issues, or vulnerable beneficiaries may require special care.
Yes, but structure matters. A direct inheritance or poorly drafted trust can affect eligibility for disability assistance under the Employment and Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Act. A properly drafted discretionary trust, paired with a considered choice of trustee, can preserve eligibility while providing long-term support.
First Nations estate planning may involve both provincial estate law and the Indian Act, particularly where reserve land or other reserve property is involved. Coordinated planning should address both regimes.
A Power of Attorney deals mainly with financial and legal matters. A Representation Agreement deals mainly with health care and personal care decisions.
Probate is the court process confirming an executor’s authority under a will. Where there is no will or no executor able to act, a grant of administration may be required. A grant is not always required, but many financial institutions and land transactions require one.
In British Columbia, a wills variation claim must generally be started within 180 days of the grant of probate, and other estate claims carry their own limitation periods. Early advice is important.