All About Estates

Month: November 2019

Total 22 Posts

Secret and Semi-Secret Trusts: An Unusual Approach to Testamentary Dispositions – Part II

Guest written by Giancarlo Mignardi, Student-at-Law at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Last week, I provided an overview of secret and semi-secret trusts, as well as the legal framework that allows for their existence. Today, I will discuss some of the practical uses of such trusts in modern estate-planning, as well…

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Fiduciary Investing Series – Fun, fun, funds

This blog has been written by Robert Boyd, Director, Scotiatrust. Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are all well known to the general public and reasonably well understood investment vehicles, however there is a trust specific fund that has fallen out of favour in recent years, somewhat…

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Where have all the sensible litigants gone?

As a lawsuit winds its way through the courts, more often than not procedural disputes pop up – timetables, disclosure obligations, the scope of examinations of witnesses: these are all areas ripe for disagreements between counsel (and often little understood by clients). The courts generally expect counsel to sort these…

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Henson Trusts

Qualifying for support under various government disability programs in the form of cash payments or benefits often means that a recipient must have income and assets below a certain level. Without careful planning an intended inheritance may unintentionally serve to cut off a beneficiary’s government support. A Henson Trust allows…

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New Guidelines on Provision of CPR in Hospitals

The case of Wawrzyniak v. Livingstone, 2019 ONSC 4900 (CanLII) is a landmark decision that readers may find interesting. It clarifies physicians’ obligations with respect to the writing of no-CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) orders and the provision of CPR in Ontario hospitals. The decision has led to the College of Physicians…

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No, You Can Not Visit Your Mom, Dad…..

There was a recent CBC news article, dated Nov 23 2019, which reported that The Trespass Act was used illegally to keep families away from their loved ones, as they were speaking out about about conditions in Long Term Care and retirement residences where their loved ones lived. The article…

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Secret and Semi-Secret Trusts: An Unusual Approach to Testamentary Dispositions – Part I

Guest written by Giancarlo Mignardi, Student-at-Law at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP When we think about testamentary gifts, we typically think of outright gifts, and testamentary trusts, both of which are typically set out in the terms of a Will. However, there is another, lesser-known option: the secret (and semi-secret) trust….

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Fiduciary Investing Series – How to avoid compounding liability in trust accounts

This blog has been written by Robert Boyd, Director, Scotiatrust. The blog is the first in a series focusing on Fiduciary Investing that will cover a range of practical topics. When one approaches the topic of fiduciary record keeping, there is room for forgiveness for those who tune out (or…

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Meeting the Will Challenge Threshold

Today’s blog was written by Christina Papadopoulos, an articling student with de VRIES LITIGATION LLP. What is the minimum level of evidence to be met before a court allows a will challenge to proceed? The recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision in Naismith v. Clarke, 2019 ONSC 5280 (“Naismith”)…

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Inadequate Execution of a Will led to Court Dispute

In Bayford v. Boese 2019 ONSC 5663 the deceased Mr. Boese was the sole owner of a farm in Eastern Ontario he inherited from his parents. He never married and had no children. For two decades prior to his death, Mr. Boese was assisted in the operation of the farm…

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