Spain is near the top of the list of Canadians who want a European retirement base, and Madrid is one of my favourite cities. The weather is one of many advantages to spending time in Madrid, so I decided to revisit it earlier this month. Older Canadians are back to…
This blog has been written by Karen La Caprara, Counsel at Fasken LLP. It can be easy as a will-drafting lawyer or clerk to approach drafting a will in the same manner as drafting a commercial contract. Like a commercial contract, it is critical that a will does what it…
Many of us are speaking to our clients about estate planning or supporting clients who are speaking to their other advisors about estate planning. Have you thought about the questions that we pose to such clients. Have you thought about your estate plan? Is your will drafted as per your…
*This blog post was written by Ruth Paul, articling student at de VRIES LITIGATION LLP* Testamentary freedom is a guiding principle in Canadian estates law. It operates under the presumption that individuals are free to dispose of their estate however they see fit. However, testamentary freedom is not an absolute…
This article is written by Nicole Ewing, Director, Tax & Estate Planning, TD Wealth As professional advisors, we often speak in generalities and paraphrase rules to make our complex worlds more accessible to our clients. But there’s a risk in this oversimplification – sometimes important exceptions become unknown and worse, underutilized….
Today’s blog post was written by Latoya Brown, an Associate at Fasken LLP. The discussion of discriminatory wills continues with a new case out of the British Columbia Supreme Court. In Lam v Law Estate, 2024 BCSC 156, the court varied a testatrix’s will on the reasoning that the testatrix’s…
In the 1970s, Canadian charity law dramatically evolved and became imbedded in the Income Tax Act. While this is ancient history, I have personal connections with the drafting Working Group at the Department of Finance that I rediscovered. To my delight, after 45 years, I reconnected with one of the…
In Ingram v. Kulynych Estate, 2024 ONCA 678, the Court of Appeal for Ontario considered the appropriate limitation period where two different limitation periods were applicable and apparently in conflict in relation to a claim against an estate. Background Henry Kulynych died in February 2017. In his Will, Mr. Kulynych…
Douglas Buchmayer, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP As many of you will be aware, probate is the process by which the Will of a deceased person is submitted to the Court for verification. A tax under the Estate Administration Tax Act of Ontario (formerly known as “probate fees”) of 1.5% is…
As much as I love writing about the law, it’s important to sometimes take a moment to acknowledge the people that it affects. I’ve noticed that over the past few months I’ve worked with several clients who felt motivated to revisit their estate planning after the death of someone they…