All About Estates

Category: Attorney Compensation

Total 14 Posts

Estate Trustee Compensation – Discretionary Factors

Estate trustees are entitled to seek compensation for their work. Unless an exception applies, the court will exercise its discretion to determine the amount.

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Compensation as Attorney for Personal Care: Guided by Reasonableness and Proportionality

The 2021 decision in Sasso v. Sasso[1] was recently affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Sasso case has a few interesting aspects to it but for the purpose of this blog I focus on the claim for compensation which was made by an attorney for personal care. Although…

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Inheritance and Tax

There is renewed discussion on whether Canada will become another jurisdiction where specific gift or estate taxes will be imposed on inheritances. There is speculation that the discussion will lead to something concrete as early as next week’s Federal Budget. In the meantime, there are situations where inheritances can come…

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WHAT ABOUT A CORPORATE EXECUTOR?

A lot has been written about how should choose an executor, and some of it in this blog place. A couple of years ago, fellow boggler Emily Hubling wrote eloquently about the risk and rewards of appointing a professional advisor as executor. I would like to revisit some of the…

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No Passing of Accounts Unless “Significant Concern”

Emerson and Marie Lewis appointed two of their six adult children, Donald and Douglas Lewis, as their attorneys for property. Their remaining four children (the “non-attorney siblings”) commenced an application pursuant to ss. 42(1) and (4) of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c.30 (the “SDA”) for leave to…

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Finally, A Nice Passing of Accounts

Passings of accounts can often be bitter and vicious. However, the case of Daniel Estate (Re), 2019 ONSC 2790 was a welcome “good news” alternative to the standard slugfest. Linda and Ted cared for their elderly neighbours Isabel and Wayne for over two decades. The court noted that their relationship…

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Attorney compensation and then some…..

I had the pleasure last week of being a panelist as part of the Canadian Association of Gift Planner’s mentoring & education breakfast, on the topic of Ethics. When I had previously thought of ‘Gift Planning’ I was only considering the Will component, the gift left to a particular charity,…

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Estate Trustees and Costs of Litigation: Try not to take it personally?

In the work I do, I am asked to provide expert testimony to support litigation. In some cases, I am often quite surprised to what extent parties will continue to litigate matters that appear to be “no-wins” or for small dollar amounts. Depending on the circumstances, parties have taken the…

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My Best Interests, and Yours Too?

The recent case of Tarantino v. Galvano, 2017 ONSC 3535, raises a variety of issues familiar to estate litigators – powers of attorney, capacity, quantum meruit claims, the duty to account and the rules surrounding the removal of an estate’s executor. In this case the deceased, Rosa Filippo Galvano (“Rosa”) had…

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Friends Helping Friends – Then Forgetting About It

When asking a friend for a financial favour, people often fail to document their actions and decisions as thoroughly as they should – the trust people have in their friends frequently translates into a belief that they do not need to pay attention. Regardless of whether the trust was deserved,…

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