All About Estates

Month: April 2023

Total 16 Posts

Tax Implications for Exempt Life Insurance Policies

Today’s blog post was written by Pritika Deepak, an Associate at Fasken LLP. This is Part II of a three-part blog series which provides a high-level overview of some of the tax implications to consider, with respect to certain assets held at death. Part I, which addresses RRSPs can be…

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Autonomy, Choice and Control

This post was written by Diana Leopardi Consider this question: would you carry an umbrella on a sunny day? A Mandate in the event of incapacity is like carrying an umbrella on a sunny day, with no intention of using it but grateful to have the umbrella in the event…

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What is the Consent and Capacity Board?

Capacity is a key component of estate litigation, especially in guardianship and attorneyship disputes. Questions of when someone has begun acting as an attorney for property and whether a person had the requisite capacity to designate a party as their attorney are some of the ways this issue plays out….

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ChatGPT, make me a trust

As we reach the end of this blog series about ChatGPT, I’m reminded of Jeopardy! legend and now co-host Ken Jennings. In the finale of a three-day tournament pitting him against the IBM supercomputer Watson, Ken wrote, as part of his final answer “I, for one, welcome our new computer…

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A Refresher: Knowledge and Approval and its Connection to Suspicious Circumstances

A testator must have knowledge and approved of the contents of her will. This is one of the requisite elements for proving a will in a solemn form. Knowledge and approval, and its closely related cousin of due execution, is generally viewed as an easier test to meet compared with…

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Proposing an Elder Care Planning Framework for Decision Making

The Elder Care Planning Framework In March 2023, I was a panellist at the Ontario Bar Association’s Elder Law Day, where Dr. Richard Shulman and I spoke about decision-making capacity. In preparing our presentation, we developed this tool to aid in planning decision-making for elder care management and related financial,…

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