In this space, sometime ago, a fellow blogger wrote about how survivor payments made out of a deceased’s tax free savings account (TFSA) to the deceased’s spouse TFSA would qualify as an “exempt contribution” (i.e. the contribution room in the surviving spouse’s TFSA would not be affected by the addition…
Tag: Wills
Total 105 Posts
How should an estate trustee proceed when they cannot identify or locate all of the heirs to an estate? In some cases, a challenge arises where a will does not identify the beneficiaries by name, but by class or some other description. For example, a will may leave the residue…
The Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan was recently asked (in the case of Gust vs. Langan et al., 2020 SKQB 42) whether a will handwritten on a paper napkin created by the deceased sometime before his death met the requirements of being a valid will under the relevant Act to permit…
This post is a culmination of the works of various members of Fasken LLP. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I knew the basics of Will formalities in other provinces”? In this post, we hope to expand our horizons beyond Ontario to provide a brief overview of the…
Accommodating Beneficiaries With Differing Gender Identities Our society is becoming increasingly attuned to accommodating the needs of people who have various gender identities, whether such people are transgender, queer, or do not identify as one specific gender. For example, Ontario announced a few years ago that its residents can use…
It is no surprise that many people are contemplating their own mortalities during the COVID-19 pandemic and wish to make a will. However, the existing laws are particularly unsuited to making wills in a time of social distancing; it will usually be impossible or unsafe to have two people witness…
The freezing of current share value so that your chosen successors can easily participate in the future growth of your enterprise is a common estate planning technique. What if the value of the frozen shares now exceeds the value of the enterprise as a whole? I wrote about this sometime…
Today’s blog is being brought to you by guest blogger, Krista Brown, a law clerk in the Private Client Services group of Fasken LLP. The year 2020 has proven to be quite challenging thus far. It is a test and a reminder of the importance of our job as estate…
An executor, as the legal representative of the estate, is required to obtain a clearance certificate before distributing property that they control. Where the executor fails to obtain a clearance certificate, they are liable for any unpaid amounts in respect of any property distributed. Some will argue that not every…
This is the second entry in a three-part blog series about the current state of estates law vis-à-vis privacy law. Part I focused on the relevant federal and provincial privacy legislation. Part II will examine significant court decisions relating to this area. Part III will look at solutions for lawyers…