Corporately-owned life insurance is viewed as a key strategic option in tax and estate planning, notably for business owners. There are several strategic reasons to consider corporately-owned insurance as part of the estate plan, such as equalization among the beneficiaries of their estate or to fund the taxes triggered on…
Use of spousal trust or common-law partner trusts Setting up a spousal or common-law partner trust is a very important decision that generally results from non-tax reasons. One of the common reasons for setting up this type of trust is to protect the surviving spouse from influencers who might try…
To paraphrase the common law, a gift must be “freely given without consideration”. “Consideration” means without expectation of benefit, which eliminates contractual or other binding rights. This concept was addressed by my colleague Darren Lund in a recent All About Estates blog on charitable donations from alter ego and spousal…
During the June 10, 2016 Toronto STEP Conference Roundtable, the CRA was asked to provide its views on paragraph 8 of IT-3054, which states: Once a trust qualifies as a spouse trust under the terms of subsection 70(6), it remains a spouse trust and is subject to the provisions affecting…