Estate Administration

Quickstart Guide

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WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS...SIMPLIFIED

ESTATE ADMINISTRATION

Emergent Estate Administration is designed to handle data storage and document assembly.

Matters are the actual profiles of the Deceased under administration by the department.

Contacts, on the other hand, are individuals, companies, government offices, courts, municipalities, joint shareholders, estate shareholders, family trust shareholders and trustee shareholders. Essentially, the system considers any entity that holds an address or requires a specially formatted signature line to be a Contact.

Relationships are created between Contacts and Matters and once a Contact has been entered into the system; it can be used repeatedly for any Matter.

This guide has been designed as a reference for basic data entry and document generation. A more detailed guide for using Estate Administration is available at www.emergent.ca/help

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Estate Administration Matters

The information required for an Estate Administration Matter is sorted into various data entry sections, as shown in the screenshots below. Below each screenshot you will find a summary of the type of information required for each of the data entry tabs along with tips for data entry.

NOTE: Estate Administration ET does not require that all, or even any, of the data entry fields be completed from the beginning. However, it is beneficial to enter as much information as possible and keep it updated so that documents reflect accurate Estate records.

Creating a New Estate Administration Matter

If the Matter was created using Estate Planning & Vault Manager, Estate Planning & Vault Manager will

offer to open a Probate file after entering the Death date. Choosing Yes will transfer all of the information

from the Estate Planning File to the Probate file, which can then be accessed by clicking the Probate Files button to display the Probate Files List.

However, if this is a Matter that was not commenced in Estate Planning & Vault Manager, then open a new Matter by clicking on Add New File > Estate Administration > <Jurisdiction> (or Blank Probate) and OK

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This will open the Probate Wizard. There are three steps to complete the initial Estate Administration Matter:

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Step 1 – Entering the Deceased’s Information

If a Contact Card has been created for the deceased person, click in the Deceased Name field and enter the name or part of the name of deceased and click Find. You can then choose from the list and the information on the Contact Card will populate in the necessary fields as shown above.

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If a Contact Card has not been created, the deceased’s name will not be in this list. Click on Add as New Contact and enter the required name and address information:

If the Deceased was known by other names, whether to distinguish from similarly-named family members or an English name taken upon immigration to Canada, it can be entered in the Also Known As section and will then be included in the necessary documents.

The place of birth and death should be entered, if known, as well as the Last Will and/or Memorandum Dates. There is also a tickbox if the Deceased was intestate. Court Jurisdiction and Court are also entered if the Blank Probate template was selected.

At this point, you can also enter internal firm details, such as Client, File and Matter Number and choose the Responsible Lawyer. The list of responsible lawyers is made up of all Contacts in the database that are already entered as employees. If the Lawyer you want is not in this list, leave the field blank and add the responsible lawyer to the Administration tab after finishing the other steps in the Probate Wizard.

You can also elect to have all documentation saved to a specified location, such as the client’s sub-directory in the Estates Services Directory.

If information is not known, it can be added later in the appropriate tabs in Estate Administration. Once all known information is entered, click next.

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Step 2 – Entering the Deceased’s Family Information

The Spousal (if any) information is completed. Similar to adding the Deceased’s information above, either search for the name or add as new contact. Indicate whether the spouse is a Trustee and/or Beneficiary and complete the Name in Will section.

If the spouse was confirmed as Trustee and/or Beneficiary their name will automatically appear in the Trustee and/or Beneficiary grid.

To add a Trustee, click in the first blank line of the grid and the New Contact search box will appear. Add the Trustee in the usual manner. Relation Type can be chosen from the dropdown, as well as whether the Trustee is also a beneficiary. Notes can also be recorded in that section of grid.

Beneficiaries, if known, are also added at this point. Again, click in the first blank line of the grid and continue in the usual manner. Complete the dropdown choices. Relation can be sister, son, friend, etc. Reverse Relation can be, for example, Wife to Husband, Father to Daughter, and Aunt to Nephew. Continue with Legacy, Public Guardian Trustee, and Guardian if necessary.

When all known information is entered, click next.

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Step 3 – Entering the Deceased’s Original Assets and/or Liabilities

In this final step of the Probate Wizard, the original assets and/or liabilities are entered.

Click on the Add Original Asset/Liability button and the following screen appears:

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Property information has been entered in this example. Using the various dropdowns, specific information can be entered about any type of asset or liability and click OK.

Once all the assets and liabilities information has been entered, Step 3 will look like this:

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Click Finish and the new Matter will open showing the Overview Tab.

If details need to be added at a later date, either click on Common Tasks>Probate Wizard to start the Wizard and complete the missing items or simply click on the necessary Tab heading to enter the information.

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Generating Documents

All documents from Estate Administration are generated using MS Word.

Documents

Click on the Create Document button while in the open matter.

You will then see a window containing a list of document templates available for creation within the system.

Choose a folder from the list to display the template group and highlight the desired document(s) on the right side and double-click the name or ok to create the documents. Hold the <Ctrl> key to select multiple documents.

If you are creating letters you would like to pre or post-date, enter the date to override the current date in the Letter Date field. Leaving the Signing Date blank will populate the legal date with “the Day of <Current Month>, <Current Year>. If you prefer to pre or post-date your legal signing date, change the Signing Date.

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Documents generated though Estate Administration are standard Word format, and can be edited as

required.

Options

Select the Options button on the Create Document Window to set further options for the documents. For example, you may wish to automatically Save, Print and Close the document(s) once they are created and Add follow up task. When all choices have been made, click OK. You can also choose to make these choices your default choice so that these actions are performed for all documents. Changes to Options are specific to your computer and will not affect other workstations.

Saving a Document

Estate Administration has document management built into the application. Documents can be saved or linked to a Matter for easy retrieval of documents as well as a work history for the matter.

If you selected Save in the Document Options, the document is saved automatically in the location specified on the Administration Tab. Estate Administration will also add the link to the Documents Tab and to the Workflow Tab for tracking and follow-up.

By clicking on the blue link, the document will be retrieved and opened in Word. Any User with Estate Administration installed on their workstation will be able to retrieve documents saved this way by any other Users. In addition, the Documents Tab provides an exact history of what documents have been created for this matter.

It is important to note that Estate Planning & Vault Manager does not create a copy of the document. It creates a link to the original document. It is advisable to set the desired location for saving these

documents, such as a specific client folder. Set this location on the Administration Tab.

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Add a Document Link

The Add Executed Document button allows you to add documents (Word, Excel, or PDF only) to the

Documents Tab and have it available to all users. Click Add Executed Document and complete the details.

Click on the in Document Location, navigate to where the document is saved and select the document. Thereafter, by clicking on the document name in blue, the document will be retrieved and opened in Word.

Note: Documents saved to your local C: drive will not be available to others.

A more detailed guide for using Estate Administration is available at www.emergent.ca/help