All About Estates

Gillian Fournie

Total 72 Posts Website
Gillian is a lawyer with de VRIES LITIGATION LLP. Her practice focuses on the area of trusts and estates litigation. More of Gillian's blogs can be found at https://devrieslitigation.com/author/gfournie/

Master the ETDL Appointment

Estate Trustees During Litigation are appointed in a wide variety of situations where a neutral party is needed to administer and preserve the estate assets. The bar for their appointment is lower than to remove an estate trustee.

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Hidden Fees – A Breach of Trust

Registered accounts are often set up as express trust accounts, with the bank acting as trustee and the account holder as beneficiary. In these cases, banks are subject to all the same fiduciary duties and responsibilities that apply to all trustees – meaning they cannot charge hidden fees.

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Clash of the Limitation Periods

The Limitations Act, 2002, SO 2002, c 24, Sch B, brought order and clarity to limitation periods in Ontario. However, the Limitations Act did not displace all existing limitation periods established by statute. The Limitations Act carves out several exceptions, including the Real Property Limitations Act, RSO 1990, c L.15…

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The Motivating Factor

Estate litigation is full of high emotions and recriminations, usually stemming from decades of family history. As a result, it is not unusual for a client to question their family member’s reason for commencing litigation against them: jealousy and revenge for some long ago slight are usual suspects. However, as…

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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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Resulting Trusts and Summary Judgment Motions

With its sandy beaches, hiking trails, canoe routes, and wildlife, the Town of Wasaga Beach is a well-loved Ontario vacation destination. However, no town, however idyllic, is immune to lengthy property disputes, especially when the two people fighting are related to each other. Brother A and Brother B were at…

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Separation Agreements, Support Obligations, and Summary Judgment

Separation agreements commonly include a requirement that one of the spouses maintains a life insurance policy in favour of the other in order to “secure” support payments (either child support or spousal support). It is equally as common to find out, on the death of the supposedly insured spouse, that…

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Tenancy and Equitable Ownership – You Can Have it All!

Can you be a tenant and an equitable owner of a property? Absolutely! Read how you can have it all in Warraich v Choudhry et al, 2019 ONSC 2656. In March 2012, Choudhry purchased a property for $519,000.00. In April 2012, Warraich, one of Choudhry’s friends, moved into the property…

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Testamentary Freedom – A Fundamental Right?

Whether testamentary autonomy is a constitutionally protected right has not been considered by the courts … until now.

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It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over*

A “passing of accounts” refers to the process of formally preparing and presenting accounts to the beneficiaries and the court. The accounts are either approved (i.e., “passed”) in the form presented, amended by court order and passed in revised form, or not passed because the court is not satisfied with…

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