Beacon Law Centre, a unique and award-winning law firm with three locations, is hiring. We are looking for an intermediate Probate & Estate Administration Legal Assistant to help support our growing practice in our Sidney location. The successful candidate has a deep working knowledge of drafting estate legal documents and the administration of estates including:

Job Summary:

• working closely with responsible lawyer, providing updates on the estate file(s) and carrying out instructions of the responsible lawyer.
• cataloging and recording of estate assets.
• maintaining accurate records of all estate receipts and payments.
• corresponding with executors (and beneficiaries where required).
• corresponding with accountants, financial and investment institutions, the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC (where required) and other professionals in relation to estates.
• maintaining a current understanding of any changes within the Wills, Estate and Succession Act (“WESA”) and the Supreme Court Civil Rules as amended from time to time.
• ensuring all tax filings and other filings are conducted within required deadlines.

Duties:

• Correspondence and meeting with executor(s) to obtain instructions and information.
• Correspond with executor to schedule appointments with responsible lawyer.
• Draft all application documents necessary for a grant of probate (executor) or administration (if no will).
• Correspond with financial and investment institutions, accountants, executors (beneficiaries where required), real estate appraisers, real estate agents, the Public Guardian and Trustee of BC (where required) and all other entities necessary to gather information.
• Correspond with other law firms to obtain original estate planning documents for deceased.
• Searches: LTSA (name searches & land title searches), BC Assessment (assessed value of real property), BC Registry Services (corporate searches), Vital Statistics (will searches), Manufactured Home and PPR (registry search and lien searches) and Court Services Online (search for will variation claims).
• Prepare all necessary written correspondence for lawyer approval.
• Draft transmission documents for registration at LTSA to transmit title of real property to executor.
• Draft transfer documents to transfer real property to beneficiaries.
• Change of Trustees.
• Discharges of Mortgage (where applicable).
• Maintain accurate and detailed accounting for estate distributions including reconciling deceased’s bank accounts, receiving liquidated proceeds, payment of estate debts and all recording transactions in trust accounting software.
• Prepare consent and release documents as prescribed by WESA.
• Responsible for all stages of an estate file including following all deadlines to ensure meeting of all limitation dates.
• Correspond with accountants and executors to ensure all tax filing and payment deadlines/requirements are met.
• Scan all documents for paperless file retention, preparing estate file for closing pursuant to the Law Society requirements and Beacon Law procedures.
• Maintenance of file and storage systems.

Education and Qualifications:

• Legal Administrative Assistant Certification (in-progress or completed)
• Intermediate to senior level experience as a Probate and Estate Legal Assistant
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook Etc.,) Microsoft Teams and Esilaw (or equivalent accounting software)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate at all levels of an organization, internally and externally
• The ability to practice sound discretion and judgement at all times

Our firm offers a great working environment together with a tax-free health care spending account and competitive salary. If you would like the opportunity to join an extraordinary group of lawyers and support staff, please email your resume and cover letter to cindy@beaconlaw.ca