In my last entry I promised to follow up a discussion on the “30 day survivorship clause” with a talk about the statutory survivorship rules. Inspired by both today’s date and a lovely seasonal ecard I received last week, I decided this less-than-festive topic could wait till the New Year. December…

As this is my last blog for the 2015 year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to remind readers who are trustees of a discretionary family trust set up for the benefit of their family (or other persons) (referred to as “a trust”) that it is important they consider and document decisions to distribute income (including realized taxable capital gains) out to a beneficiary prior to December 31st.