MORTALITY WAKEUP
Quebecers rush to sign wills
Anna Kamateros typically used to get two or three calls a week from new or existing clients looking to make a last will and testament.
But since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and the virus began to spread in Quebec, the Montreal notary in private practice has been getting two or three calls a day from people suddenly coming to the realization they have neither laid out their final wishes nor put a plan in place to protect their loved ones in the event of their death. Some are panicked, she said, while others are more pragmatic.
“Whether I’m getting a call or whether I’m getting a request for services, a lot of people have it on their minds right now. We’re bombarded with news about people passing away every day,” Kamateros said. “It’s just a certain consciousness, an awareness that’s out there right now about these kinds of things.”
There’s nothing like a pandemic to force people to confront their own mortality. And COVID-19 has woken many people up to the fact their demise could come sooner and more suddenly than they ever imagined — even if they’re in the prime of life. If this was equally true before the coronavirus hit, this fearsome reality has nevertheless spurred many into action.
There are reports of many doctors and other front-line health care workers rushing to get their affairs in order as they care for infected patients.
Having a will is important at all times, said Angela Campbell, a professor and associate provost in the Faculty of Law at Mcgill University.
Yet a 2018 Angus Reid poll found that just over half of Canadians
have no will. The figure drops to 42 per cent in Quebec. Seniors are twice as likely as middle-aged Canadians to have a will; 57 per cent of respondents ages 35 to 54 reported not having formalized their final wishes.
For those without a will, the civil code prescribes how their property is divided after their death. Campbell warns many people may be in for a rude awakening.
Unmarried couples, for instance, are not protected at all, so the partner left behind inherits nothing under Quebec law.
Even married parents of minor children might be surprised to learn that the surviving spouse receives only a third of the estate while the kids get two-thirds, but only once they turn 18. (Same rule apply for those in civil unions).
“It can get really complicated,” Campbell said. “So that’s why it’s important to have good advice if you’re making a will. And people would normally go to a notary for that advice.”
François Bibeau, president of the Chambre des notaires du Québec, said he is hearing anecdotally from members that they are under a lot of pressure from clients in these unprecedented times.
While notaries have been declared an essential service, Bibeau noted many (Kamateros included) are working from home, taking care of children no longer in school and practising social-distancing measures that render their usual duties more complicated.
Emergency measures came into effect on April 1 allowing for video conferencing to verify identities and documents to be signed electronically, so their work has become a little safer and easier. But public expectations are sky high for this delicate, detail-oriented work.
“There are two things, two notions we have to consider,” said Bibeau. “There’s what’s important, and we know that having a will is important, and there’s what’s urgent. So a lot of notaries are having to say yes, this is important, but is it really urgent?”
Bibeau said he hopes the realization that having a will is essential lasts after the pandemic subsides.
In the meantime, there are other options for those who don’t have the money or can’t get to a notary. They are clearly spelled out by the Quebec legal education site Educaloi.
A holograph will — which must be a handwritten document signed by the person making the will — is the simplest. A person can also draft a will and get two witnesses to sign it.
The witnesses cannot be beneficiaries and both must be present at the same time, which poses a hitch in this time of social distancing. Both of these types of will must be probated — verified and authenticated — after the person’s death, which costs money.
“There are different ways to make a will and they’re all valid,” Campbell said. “The key thing with (non-notarized options) is that they’re more easily challenged because you didn’t get legal advice; people can say you weren’t well when you wrote it. They also can get lost. Someone has to know where you put it. They’re a little bit more vulnerable in that sense because they could disappear.”
Significant life events, such as buying a home, the birth of a child, getting sick or getting older are what usually cause people to start thinking about estate planning, said Campbell.
“It has to dawn on us sometime in our lives that we’re not going to live forever. Those are really tough things to think about, but it’s true,” she said. “(This is) a moment where the thought is crossing everybody’s mind at the same time.”