All About Estates

Tag: spousal trust

Total 4 Posts

Tainting The Spousal Trust?

Corporately-owned life insurance is viewed as a key strategic option in tax and estate planning, notably for business owners.  There are several strategic reasons to consider corporately-owned insurance as part of the estate plan, such as equalization among the beneficiaries of their estate or to fund the taxes triggered on…

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Bequeathing qualifying shares: to trust or not to trust

Use of spousal trust or common-law partner trusts Setting up a spousal or common-law partner trust is a very important decision that generally results from non-tax reasons. One of the common reasons for setting up this type of trust is to protect the surviving spouse from influencers who might try…

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Donations from Spousal and Other Trusts

To paraphrase the common law, a gift must be “freely given without consideration”. “Consideration” means without expectation of benefit, which eliminates contractual or other binding rights. This concept was addressed by my colleague Darren Lund in a recent All About Estates blog on charitable donations from alter ego and spousal…

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Once a Qualifying Spousal Trust, Always and Qualifying Spousal Trust – and a Note on Deathbed Holograph Wills

During the June 10, 2016 Toronto STEP Conference Roundtable, the CRA was asked to provide its views on paragraph 8 of IT-3054, which states: Once a trust qualifies as a spouse trust under the terms of subsection 70(6), it remains a spouse trust and is subject to the provisions affecting…

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