Chris Boulton became a lawyer in 1990. He specializes in the area of Wills and Estate Planning, including preparing basic and complex wills and everything in between, including setting up will substitute trust agreements such as Alter Ego Trusts, Joint Partner Trusts and disability trusts. Mr. Boulton is very aware of a variety of different planning solutions that can put in place to assist achieving better estate planning results.  Mr. Boulton engages with his clients to advise them decide on the best way to set up inheritances.

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Another related area of practice involves extra documents when preparing wills or other estate planning activity. With the number of blended families in our society, there are often side agreements to ensure that a will is able to be less open to challenge, ranging from trust declarations to preparing marriage and cohabitation agreements, often in conjunction with estate planning and will preparation. Agreements such as these are particularly useful in remarriage situations where one or both parties are interested in protecting the assets from legal challenges.

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Mr. Boulton also advises on the appropriate ownership of land for the purposes of what happens after death and advises on the best way to handle beneficiary designations in life insurance and other financial instruments.  Estate planning also involves tax outcomes and Mr. Boulton can advise on certain of those outcomes and work in conjunction with the tax lawyers at KSW Lawyers when there are more complex tax issues.

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Planning for incapacity is a related area of practice, and includes preparing power of attorney and advance health care directive documents, dealing with incapacity issues on behalf of adults, handling Committeeship applications and occasionally advising in regards to disputes over the capacity of individuals.

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Mr. Boulton assists with handling probate applications, estate settlement and estate accounting, and handling disputes arising between families in regard to estate settlement and estate accounting.

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Mr. Boulton has experience dealing with complicated and difficult situations and helping to resolve disputes over estates. At this time Mr. Boulton works in conjunction with the Estate Litigation Group at KSW Lawyers, as many of these situations require the use of litigation strategies. Not every disputed case can be settled without court involvement.  More and more estates area being litigated as the wealth effect of housing prices has made more and more families wealthy enough to engage in disputes.

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Mr. Boulton has spoken frequently at seminars on the subject of prevention of elder abuse through an ongoing arrangement with the City of Surrey and the Surrey Crime Prevention Society.

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Chris has lived in Surrey since 1994 and has been an active member of the community for many years. He has served in many volunteer capacities, including several years as a minor hockey coach with the Semiahmoo Minor Hockey Association, concluding in 2011 and previously with Surrey Minor Hockey Association. Chris is also a past president and director of the Surrey Crime Prevention Society.

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