All About Estates

Month: November 2018

Total 21 Posts

Changes Are Coming to the Ontario Disability Support Program

In July, the Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services (“Minister”) announced that the provincial government was set to spend 100 days developing a plan “to reform social assistance so it helps more people break the cycle of poverty, re-enter the workforce and get back on track.” [1] At…

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Art and Fair Market Value

Fall art auction week in Toronto is just past. The biggest is run by Heffel Fine Art Auction. The results for the two Heffel auctions illustrate the challenge of determining fair market value in art. The auction catalogue listed a number of estates and charitable foundation as consignors. Clearly art valuation…

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Limiting the Limitations Act

Estate trustees must be ready at all times to account for their management and administration of an estate.  There is no statutory requirement for an estate trustee to formally pass his or her accounts.  However, the court may order an estate trustee to do so.  As part of the estate…

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November is ‘ get your stuff’ together!

My fellow bloggers and I write frequently about Powers of Attorney, however my concerns are often focused on the lack of planning when it comes to making Powers of Attorney for both Personal Care and Property. More specifically, although I do not have any statistical data, my subject matter experience…

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Some Concerns about Proposing MAiD via Advanced Directives

Audrey Parker, a terminally ill woman living in Nova Scotia, ended her life with medical assistance earlier this month after issuing a final deathbed plea asking lawmakers to loosen some of the restrictions embedded in Canada’s assisted dying law.[i] Parker stressed that the law had to be changed because anyone…

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Electronic Beneficiary Designations: an Interesting Change to the Pension Benefits Act

On November 15th, the Provincial Government released the Fall Economic Statement, and its accompanying implementation Bill. Bill 57, Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018,[1] contains 45 schedules, each relating to amendments to a different statute. Buried in Bill 57, in a single line of Schedule 33, is an interesting…

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Democracy – The Right to Vote for a Dead Guy

A dead Republican pimp has won a state assembly seat in Nevada – How’s that for an attention-grabbing opening? Election season in the U.S. has wrapped and it turns out that as much as we wanted to, Canadians were not allowed to vote. But this is an estates blog after…

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Milne Estate (Re)visited

Today’s blog was co-authored by Joanna Lindenberg and Ronald Neal The decision of Milne Estate (Re) (“Milne”) caused a stir among the members of the estates bar and solicitors who draft wills, going so far as to illicit an alert from LawPRO. While the Milne decision (which is under appeal)…

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Source of Income and the TOSI Rules: Clarification?

Since the Tax on Split Income (“TOSI”) legislation was released, there has been considerable consternation amongst professionals as to how the rules apply. Even the most sophisticated readers of the legislation agree that it contains provisions that are both ambiguous and somewhat complicated. Somewhat out of exasperation, many deal with…

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Shining a Spotlight on (Ontario) Caregivers

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…

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