Archive for June, 2009

“Documents create a paper reality we call proof.” Mason Cooley (American Writer, 1927-2002)

Do you know where your will or your birth certificate is located? Do you pay your bills on time? Do you file your income tax return before the deadline? Can you find your house insurance policy?
If not, it’s never too late to get organized. In the event of an emergency, death or disaster, being able to find required documents quickly can make a difficult situation more manageable.

Planning
Plan to set aside a few hours to put your paperwork in order. If it feels overwhelming, break it down into smaller chunks—an hour a week until it’s done.

Getting Started
Start by sorting your paperwork into categories. If you don’t need it, get rid of it. Remember that 80% of what you file you will never look at again. Protect yourself from identity theft by shredding any documents containing your name and address. Label files so that you will be able to find an item when you need it. Create an Action file for any items requiring your attention.

Bank Statements
Check your statements against ATM withdrawal slips and your chequebook as soon as possible after your statement arrives (either in the mail or electronically). Most banks ask that you notify them of any errors within 30 days. Throw out the slips as soon as you reconcile your statement.

Credit Card Statements
Check your statements against your credit card receipts as soon as possible after your statement arrives. Keep receipts for large purchases or items with a warranty.

Investment Statements
Statements pertaining to your investments should be kept for income tax purposes.

Income Tax Returns
Keep all of your income tax paperwork in one location—preferably not in a shoebox! Most income tax records need to be kept for 7 years. Check with your accountant or Canada Revenue Agency if you are unsure of what or how long you need to keep your paperwork. Don’t forget to keep the blue Notice of Assessments which arrive after filing together with the returns.

Business Expenses
If you operate a home-based business, keep any receipts that you will need for deductions as business expenses. It’s easiest if you can keep your personal and business receipts separate. I bought a small binder with 12 plastic sleeves and labelled them with the months. At year end I put them in a plastic sleeve which keeps them free from damp and water damage.

Household Paperwork
Household bills do not need to be kept for more than a year. A copy of a gas bill or telephone bill can be obtained easily should the need arise. You may wish to keep the records for any major repairs or renovations as well as the paperwork pertaining to building your home. Property tax statements, assessment notices and mortgage statements should be kept—together with your deed and mortgage.

Insurance Documents
Whether it’s your house insurance, car insurance or life insurance policy, insurance documents may be required if you need to make a claim.
Will and Power of Attorney
The original copy of your will and power of attorney may be at your lawyer’s office, but you should know where your copies are at all times. A close family member, friend or your executor should also know where these documents are kept. In the event of an accident, illness or your death, they will need these documents.
If you don’t have a will or power of attorney (medical and financial) or you haven’t gotten around to updating them, don’t put it off. Add it to your to-do list, and look after it as soon as possible.

Birth Certificates, Adoption Papers, Marriage Certificates and Divorce Papers
Knowing where all of these documents are stored can save you the time and energy of replacing them—not to mention the cost.

Social Insurance Card
It is not advisable to carry your Social Insurance Card in your wallet. Since your card is usually only required for employment and investment purposes, why take the chance that it may be lost?

Passport
Do you know where your passport and your children’s passports are? If you don’t have a passport yet, application forms are available at any Canada Post location.

Safety Deposit Box Key
If you have a safety deposit box, do you know where the key is? Does anyone else know?

Medical Records
Medical records should be stored in a safe place. Create a separate folder for each family member. If one family member has a number of medical conditions, create a different folder for each condition. Information you may be collecting about retirement homes or nursing homes for an aging parent should be kept in its own folder as well.

Storage
Store your records in a filing cabinet, storage box (plastic is preferred over cardboard) or a home safe. They are worth protecting.

Reward Yourself
When you’re done, don’t forget to reward yourself for a job well done! Investing the time to put your records in order will be worth the peace of mind!!

Contributed by Cathy Mendler, owner of A New Leaf, Personalized Organizing Solutions for Home and Small Business, and can be reached at 519-669-1377.

P.S. Personal Possessions

If your home has many things from papers to books to china to furniture and antiques you might consider calling CPR Home Resusitation Services, Catherine Bowmaster, Lyle Place in Guelph – 519-836-8699. She and her crew will come to your home and photograph everything and put it on a CD which you can keep in a safe place in case of fire, theft, water damage, etc. When people have a property insurance claim, the company will usually leave a claim open as long as 2 years because most people don’t remember everything they have, especially after a traumatic loss.  Cat provides an invaluable service.

The Top Ten reasons that more than half of Canadians don’t have a legal will:

1. It costs too much

2. I haven’t got around to it

3. I don’t know who to leave my assets to

4. I’m too young

5. I don’t have enough assets

6. I already did that once

7. It isn’t fun

8. I’m not going to die

9. I don’t want to think about it

10. My beneficiaries might knock me off

An executor’s first duty is to examine the Will within 48 hours of death to make sure that there are no items contained in or attached to the original Will which must be acted on immediately such as special burial wishes or pre-paid funerals. I actually had a client who filed her pre-paid bills with her Will. When she passed away, the children came from far and wide and arranged a burial. Two weeks later they found that they had not used the right funeral home and now would have to pay a second time. These were not bad children, they didn’t know what Mom had decided because she never talked about her plans to them and they never asked.

The next process is to obtain a Court Bond to access all property if necessary and to assemble a list of all items for probate. This can be a long process if the Executor has not been kept up to date on where assets are located physically and where the proof of ownership for everything might be. In fact, the Executor may have a very hard time finding the original Will which is an absolute necessity. Copies may not be of the latest will and the Executor’s credibility hangs on it.

Doing an inventory of all assets can only be done by assembling them in one place. No one, whether named in a will or not, can take property of any kind until the Executor has been able to do their job.

Now attention must be focused on all of the financial records. That means banks, property insurances, ownership deeds, debt contracts, income tax records, utility bills, etc. Could you even direct anyone today to your own such records, never mind expect your Executor to find them for you without your help?

It is that person’s job to manage the Estate until they can finish inventorying and assembling everything. That would include such simple things as paying your home bills to keep the heat on, buying food and clothes for minor children, and the hundreds of other daily things which happen. Every time an Executor does these things they have to prove with an original or a notarized copy of the Will and the Death Certificate that they are legally responsible for doing so.,

The next thing on the list is to consider the non-probate assets like life insurance, critical illness insurance return of premiums, and segregated funds. The beneficiaries must be identified and sign the correct paperwork in order for the policies to be administered by the companies involved.

Then, and only then, can the Executor legally distribute the Estate amongst the heirs. It’s not a job for the faint-of-heart. All of this happens immediately after you have lost someone you care for and it all demands focused specific attention.

People tend to say things like, “I don’t want any lawyer taking my hard earned money.” My answer to that is to ask you how many “named executor’s” did it all by themselves and never went to a lawyer for any advice? My other comment is that any competently trained lawyer can execute a will in far fewer hours than an untrained, unfamiliar lay-person. They have the resources at their fingertips and the knowledge to get things done as quickly and correctly as possible. So unless you have a lawyer in the family who agrees to work for free, think twice about burdening your family and friends with such a job when you’re not there to help them and guide them along.

The Guelph and District Multicultural Festival

One of the best kept secrets in Ontario is a celebration of the many cultures of the world where Canadians choose to spend a weekend of sun, fun and sheer joy in mid-June every year. This is a family event which let’s each part of our community shine in their own unique way.

The City of Guelph has roots from the Scottish masons who came here to build sturdy stone cottages and solid buildings such as our beautiful cathedral Church of Our Lady which have lasted for more than 150 years along the Speed River. They were followed by English settlers who came to run the mills which took advantage of the river to generate power.  In the early 1900’s Italian immigrants decided to come to the community and add their colourful love of song, good food, wine and family to brighten our days.

A recent survey found that more than 21% of Guelph’s population was not born in Canada. During the weekend, representatives of the Guelph Mercury posted a map of the world and asked people to put a pin in the place of their birth. It was truly amazing to see how many countries were represented.

Every province in Canada is represented along with the northern states of Washington, Nebraska, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. We have residents from California, Nevada and Florida. There are residents who hail from Mexico, Jamaica, Venezuela, Columbia and Peru. Every country in Europe from north to south and the British Isles was well represented along with Turkey and Egypt. The northern countries Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine have representation in our ethnic mix.  Continuing east we see that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan add their cultures to the mix of Bangladesh, Nepal and many parts of India.

Far south of India there is a small group of islands called the Crozets. One of the guests who placed his pin came from an island which had 160 residents. He was born and raised there and came to Canada at the age of 20 and is now settled here in Guelph.

China has representation from all four corners north, south, east and west.  There is a large population from Laos, Thailand and Myanmar along with Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. There are a few Australians and New Zealanders who join us here. From Iceland to the Azores to Zambia people have chosen Canada as the place to live and raise their children and in mid-June of 2009 they were all in Riverside Park in Guelph Ontario.

The opening ceremonies saw everyone reaffirming their oath of Canadian Citizenship led by our local federal MP Frank Valeriote.  Greetings were presented from Liz Sandals, provincial MPP for Guelph Riding who introduced Donald Jonescu from the Trillium. Mr Jonescu presented a plaque to Delfino Calegari, President of the Multicultural Festival Board, in recognition of the work of the Board and many volunteers who make this a successful day. He also announced that the Festival has been the recipient of a $114,000 grant from Trillium to allow a full time staff person and money to help promote the Festival throughout the region.

On the new sound stage set up in the center of the park dancers, singers and cultural activities took place throughout the weekend. Many compliments came from the audience about the new arrangement.  Everything from an Ethiopian Tea Ceremony to Kung Fu, Karate and Taoist Tai Chi along with Tai Kwan Do was on display for all to view and try for yourself. There were Salsa dance lessons and dance performances from Ethiopia, Ireland, Iran, the Middle East, Bangladesh, and Hungary. The dancers were wonderful, especially the belly dancers who showed how out-of shape most of us are. Their joy was palpable. Some solo singers and two small musical groups made the stage a place for folk of all ages.

In the food and beer tent there were local bands of all flavours from the swift beat of Fever to the down east Kramdens sound and that Latin American beat. There was music for two and a half days accompanied by delicious food from many, many different origins to make the taste buds wake up and shout “Mmm-Mmmm good!” The most fun was to watch the many children who went right up to the stage and danced and sang along without a care in the world. It didn’t seem to matter what their ethnic background was. They all had fun in the same way and saw no difference with anyone else.

The children also enjoyed the rides and climbing gyms where they could spin off a little energy. Two community tents encouraged crafts, drumming, drawing and playing. Many little faces were painted as clowns, cats, dogs or just showed beautiful flowers on their cheeks. Sunday afternoon saw a kite making contest which was capped off with a contest to choose the best kite flyer.

Each year sponsors give out Multicultural Awards for the best group and the best individual who furthered the cause of multiculturalism.  There was also a poster and writing contest for students from kindergarten to Grade 12. All of the winner’s efforts were on display all weekend for proud parents and family to see and there were cash awards for the winners.

If you missed this weekend, you missed a chance to see in action what Canada and Canadians have managed to create – a way for peace, tolerance and harmony to exist and show respect for every person’s contribution, small or large, to our way of life.