The following post is by guest blogger Sally Lee, LLB, an Estate and Trust Consultant at Scotia Wealth Management in Toronto. What happens when a testator, under her will, grants her executor unfettered discretion to gift a share of the residue of her estate to a charity or charities? The…
Month: August 2017
Total 18 Posts
Today’s guest blogger is Wendy Templeton. Wendy is a member of the Wills, Estates and Wealth Management Group at LLF Lawyers in Peterborough, Ontario. She is a well-known author and lecturer with a background in taxation of trusts and estates, business succession, and wills, trusts and estates. She has a…
Recently, I wrote about the gifting of cash or assets during one’s lifetime as an alternative method of distributing your wealth (beyond what you need to live on comfortably) and possibly avoid taxes (probate, income etc.) at time of death. I suggested that your heirs could use the funds in…
With Labour Day fast approaching I thought it would be fitting to highlight the role that young caregivers have in providing care to another person. Since the creation of ‘Lucky, The Young Carer Rap’ video which was a partnership with the Vanier Institute of the Family based on research conducted by…
As of January 1, 2015, a Regulation under the Estate Administration Tax Act, 1998, O Reg 310/14 requires estate trustees to give an Estate Information Return to the Ministry of Finance within 90 calendars days of a certificate of appointment of estate trustee (“Estate Certificate”) being issued. The Estate Information…
A 1953 caricature of Douglas M. Duncan by Alan Reeve. Note the envelopes in his pocket at the lower right. Douglas Duncan was a pioneering Canadian art dealer and ambitiously hapless businessman. Known as the dealer and artistic executor of artist David B. Milne, he was legendary for his…
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was asked to comment on the availability of the principal residence exemption (PRE) when a previously occupied property is destroyed by fire and a decision is made to sell the property in a later year. The taxpayer purchased a house in 2010 which was ordinarily inhabited…
If an older individual was brought to your law office by a non family member and they wanted to appoint the individual as POA for Property and Personal Care, would you be suspicious? Or what about if the request was to either change a will or to make a will,…
When you are appointed to act as a “trustee”, you are being asked to take on the control and management of property, but for the benefit of other persons, called the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are usually family members of the person who established the trust. The person who established the…
Claims against solicitors for negligence often arise in the context of estates cases, whether it be the failure of a lawyer to ensure that a testator’s wishes are accurately reflected in his/her will, to neglecting to confirm the testator had the requisite capacity and was not subject to undue influence…