All About Estates

Month: September 2011

Total 15 Posts

The High Net Wealth Segment

There are some trends emerging in the High Net Wealth Individual segment to watch for in the context of Estate planning advice.

Continue Reading

Grave Gifts

As we opened drawers and cupboards, removed wall hangings and rolled up carpets, we found a gift.

Continue Reading

Memorial Jewellery – From Ashes to Diamonds?

After cremation, most people think of ashes being “sprinkled”, held in an urn or interred. Many companies are advertising different options in the form of “Memorial Jewellery”, and one has developed a method of creating diamonds that are purportedly “molecularly identical to naturally occurring diamonds” from cremated remains.

Continue Reading

Love in the Age of Expectation

In two cases decided in 2010, the Court considered whether it was appropriate for an attorney for property to pay herself for care services provided to an aging parent

Continue Reading

Estate tax return due on a weekend or public holiday date?

What happens when the estate return due date is on a weekend or public holiday?

Continue Reading

Specificity Matters: Defining “Children” and “Issue” for Estate Planning Purposes

In a previous blog, I wrote about the need for specificity when drafting provisions that include a “spouse” of a particular person as a potential beneficiary of an estate or trust.

Attention is also needed to ensure that when a Will refers to terms such as “children” or “issue”, the persons included within these classes are those that the testator intends to benefit. This is particularly true in the current age, where there are an increasing number of different types of relationships and manners of having children.

Continue Reading

Saying Goodbye

We can prepare and plan for death but when it arrives, it can be bittersweet.

Continue Reading

Interrelation of Family Law and Estate Planning

With many couples, one or both spouses have had previous marriages or common law relationships. For many reasons, these couples’ estate planning instructions are not usually the traditional “all to my spouse with a gift over to my issue”, and clients should understand how their estat planning decisions may be impacted by family law.

Continue Reading

One in Ten: Why Donors Don’t Tell Charities about Their Bequests

Bequest donors trust charities enough to make them often significant beneficiaries of their estate, yet they don’t trust them sufficiently to tell them in advance.

Continue Reading