Wills
The law in BC allows a child of the deceased to make a claim to vary a Will, so you cannot prevent an estranged child from making a claim. However, with prudent estate planning and good Will drafting you can make it unlikely that the estranged child will have a successful claim.
The Trustee Act allows for an Executor to be paid a fee of up 5% of the realized value of the Estate. Therefore, it is not necessary to state in your Will how much an Executor is to be paid, but a predetermined fee expressed in your Will does ensure the Executor has less hassles from beneficiaries about getting paid.
Conveyancing
Adjustments are amounts that adjust the purchase price of Real Property by fairly accounting for property related expenses that have been paid or will be paid. Typically, expenses like property taxes or strata fees are adjusted by prorating the expense for the time period that either the Seller had the benefit or the Buyer will get the benefit and charging it to the party that did not pay for the expense.
Registering a child jointly on Title is bit of a double-edged sword. While putting your child a joint tenant on Title will avoid the time and expense of probate upon the parents death, it also has certain pitfalls. For instance, the property may be at risk if the child has creditor or relationship breakdown issues. Your child’s family property settlements or debts may flow to your property. Additionally, if you have more than one child, your other children that are not registered on Title may potentially be significantly disinherited.
Construction Disputes
Arbitration in construction disputes is a private contractual form of dispute resolution. If the parties to a construction contract have contemplated using arbitration to resolve any potential disputes, the contract would likely allow the parties to select an arbitrator to act as a quasi-judge to determine any issue in dispute.
Adjudication is a fast-track method of resolving payment issues in construction disputes. If a party to a contract refuses to pay the other party it can have negative flow on effects for the contractors and subcontractors in the constructions chain. When parties to a construction related payment dispute adjudicate, the payment issues is resolved in 30 days.