The Change Foundation just published their findings on Ontario Caregivers- a fitting reflection for National Caregiving Awareness month. I have summarized some of their key findings based on a study involving 800 respondents across Ontario: – Canadian family caregivers provide roughly ¾ of all patient care and their contributions to…
Today’s blog was co-written with Demetre Vasilounis, Student at Law at Fasken LLP. It is now a given that, in the 21st century, estate planners should pay attention to how clients deal with their digital assets. This is true whether such digital assets consist of social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter,…
The current Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector seems to be quite interested in “donor advised funds” or DAFs. In particular, members of the Committee are suggesting that the Income Tax Act should be changed to require individual funds to have minimum disbursement quotas and separate regulatory reporting. This…
In a recent technical interpretation, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made the point that safe income of a corporation owned by a person that died did not flow through to the estate of that person. The reason was not clearly stated but appears to be that the safe income became…
November is Make a Will month in Ontario; National Diabetes month and National Family Caregivers month in the States; Osteoporosis awareness month in Canada, and Movember for men’s health awareness. However most fitting for today is Remembrance Day, symbolized by the poppy. Remembrance Day is a significant day in the…
Today’s blog is being brought to you by our guest blogger, Anna Chen. It is a long-standing common law rule that a personal representative has one year after a deceased’s death to wind up the estate. Referred to as the “executor’s year”, the rule is intended to give the personal…
This blog was written by Sally Lee, LLB – Estate and Trust Consultant with Scotia Wealth Management. When I was in private practice, I worked on a probate file where the deceased was declared dead pursuant to subsection 2(5) of the Ontario Declarations of Death Act. He was missing…
“He knows where the bodies are buried” is a throwaway line from Orson Wells’ cinematic masterpiece, Citizen Kane. That line soon took on a life of its own and entered the cultural vernacular. In the world of estates, a more frequent problem is not finding the bodies but deciding where…
Under The Income Tax Act (“ITA”), if a taxpayer disposes of property that is all or substantially all of the assets used in an active business for consideration that includes shares of a corporation, the shares are deemed to be capital property. The disposal is considered to be a capital…
Further to my last week’s blog on ‘getting ready for the final scene’, my lovely 94 year old client died this past Saturday. I really can’t say it was a peaceful death as it seemed to be a very long and difficult journey. She could no longer eat or drink…
