All About Estates

Month: April 2018

Total 20 Posts

Senior Caregivers in Canada

Statistics Canada 2012 indicated that 28% of Canadians provided unpaid care to a family member or friend.  Just less than half (12% of all caregivers) were seniors themselves. In fact, this group was most likely to spend the longest hours per week providing care.  Almost one quarter of this group…

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The Toronto Maple Leafs and “Pour Over” Clauses have something in Common

With the Toronto Maple Leafs season ending earlier this week, I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss the recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling involving the estate of former Leafs head coach, Pat Quinn (“Pat”). On March 9, 2018, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Funt declared the “pour over” clause…

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LTCHA Fails to Meet its Mandate for Seniors with Dementia and Responsive Behaviours

All long-term care homes in Ontario are governed by one piece of legislation: the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 (LTCHA) designed to help ensure that residents of long-term care homes receive safe, consistent, high-quality resident-centred care. The Ontario Regulation 79/10 (Regulation) is made under the LTCHA and provides additional requirements….

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French Elvis has Left the Building

Johnny Hallyday, referred to as the “French Elvis”, leaves behind a string of ex-wives and disappointed beneficiaries.  His recent death has resulted in litigation over his multi-million dollar estate, with the central issue being whether French or California law governs the distribution of his estate. It is not uncommon for…

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TRUST REPORTING: NEW REQUIREMENTS COMING SOON!

Under the current rules, a trust only needs to file an annual tax return but generally does not need to file the return if it does not earn an income or make any distributions in the year. (Notwithstanding that the Canada Revenue Agency has increased its demand for “nil returns”…

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Biking Around With Dementia

I was intrigued  by the following headline “How a stationary bike, paired with Google Street View, helps seniors with dementia”  so decided that this would be the start of this morning’s blog.  One of my preferred themes is dementia and the impact it has on everyone.  No surprise as “dementia…

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The Tax on Split Income: Round Three

On March 22, 2018 the Minister of Finance released the budget implementation bill for the 2018 federal budget (“Budget Bill”), which was tabled on February 27, 2018. The Budget Bill contains some helpful amendments to the second iteration of the tax on split income (“TOSI”) rules that were released on…

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Frida Kahlo’s Barbie – Life in Plastic, Not so Fantastic

This Blog was written by: Peter Meitanis Here’s a question you never thought you would read in an estates blog: Where’s the unibrow? Last month, Mattel, the maker of Barbie introduced a group of new dolls based on real-life figures to celebrate International Women’s Day. The collection features inspiring women…

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Will Challengers Beware!

In Seguin v. Pearson, 2018 ONCA 355, the Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed the appeal of Carol-Anne Seguin from the lower court’s dismissal of her action to invalidate the two most recent wills of her late father, Robert Geddes Paterson (the “deceased”), despite the trial judge’s error in applying…

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Clawback of Old Age Security

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was reminded by a taxpayer recipient of the Old Age Security pension (OAS) about a perceived lack of fairness when required to include the dividends received at a grossed-up amount when calculating net income rather than only including the actual amount of dividends received. The…

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