All About Estates

Month: January 2022

Total 19 Posts

Latest Draft National Standards for LTC

I spent much time yesterday reading the National Standard of Canada guidelines from the Health Standards Organization draft report on developing new standards for Long Term Care. This draft document is titled “Long-Term Care Services” (CAN/HSO 21001:2022).  I also read the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star articles nicely packaged…

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Shingeki no Kyojin: An Anime Unexpectedly About Family, Legacy and Succession

Last week, my colleague Yvonne Mazurak wrote a blog post about a recently-released television show, And Just Like That, discussing the estate planning issues highlighted by the events of the show. So, I thought I would provide a bit of a television recommendation show of my own…although my taste is…

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Attorney Compensation – Can you count on it?

“An application to pass accounts is more than a rubber stamping of an attorney for property’s accounts”, reminds Justice Graeme Mew in Re Andriesky Estate, 2022 ONSC 242. In most circumstances, an attorney for property is entitled to the percentage formula in the Regulation. Ontario Regulation 26/95 made under the…

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Capacity to Retain and Instruct Counsel

Estate litigation cases often impact upon persons who are incapable. In particular, an individual may be incapable of, among other things, managing their property or personal care, of making a will (testamentary capacity) and of retaining and/or instructing counsel. The recent case of Guardian Law Group v. LS, 2021 (“Guardian”)…

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Valuation for Estate Planning – Some Hard Lessons

In a recent case in Tax Court, Lauria v HMQ 2021 TCC 66, the taxpayers, both officers and directors of a company held shares in the company as a result of employee share option agreements granted to them.  In early 2006, the company founders decided to pursue an initial public…

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Role of the Health Practitioner at Board Hearings: Recommendation for Reform

The Consent and Capacity Board (“Board”) in Ontario is a quasi-judicial administrative tribunal which operates at arm’s length from the Ministry of Health. The Board convenes hearings and makes decisions under six pieces of legislation, but most hearings relate to the Health Care Consent Act (HCCA) and the Mental Health…

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“And Just Like That”: Mr. Big’s big mistake and other take aways

This blog post has been written by YVONNE MAZURAK, Associate at Fasken LLP. Like many others, I spent a good chunk of my time off over the holidays catching up on “And Just Like That”, aka the reboot of the decade long 90s hit show which followed the lives of…

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The Decline of Churches

Organized religion has been the bedrock of the Canadian charitable sector.  When charities were first required to register federally in 1967, over 60% of organizations were religious and most were churches.  As of January 2022, Christian charities represent just 29.7% of Canada’s 86,080 registered charities.  The implications for society, giving,…

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The Importance of Independent Witnesses in a Will Challenge

Di Nunzio vs Di Nunzio reminds us of the standard of evidence required in a will challenge. The testator made a new will in 2017 (the “2017 Will’).  The 2017 Will was made while the testator was in palliative care and she retained a new lawyer to assist her to…

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We are all feeling something…. different

Today’s newsfeed story: “It’s just another pandemic Monday”  Thank you Heather Mallick, Monday January 17, 2022.  I guess we are all feeling ‘something’. Yesterday was my father’s birthday.  He would have turned 93 if he hadn’t died when he was 69.  I find it interesting how we like to do…

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