Using “dual wills” as part of an estate plan is a well-established and frequently used strategy in Ontario and across Canada. This involves the execution of two wills. A Primary Will that deals with estate assets which cannot be distributed to a testator’s beneficiaries without a Certificate of Appointment of…
Category: Business Succession Planning
Part III – Corporate Attribution This blog post has been written by Pritika Deepak, Associate at Fasken LLP. This is the last part of a three-part blog series which provides a high level overview of the attribution rules contained in the Income Tax Act (Canada)[1] (the “Act”). Part I, which…
This blog has been written by Rahul Sharma, Partner, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto I seem to keep bumping into quotes that remind me that life is simple, but people are complicated. There are perhaps many ingredients to this complexity. Culture is one of them. Last week, I presented at…
Nearly two years ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Assessing Drake’s Estate Planning Needs”. The post looked at rap sensation Drake’s assets vis-à-vis his intent for his son Adonis to be the sole beneficiary of his estate, and the various considerations that he ought to have in planning for…
In an article written on January 10, 2023 by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB),over $2 trillion in business assets could change hands within the next decade as over three-quarters (76 per cent) of small business owners are planning to exit their business. Unfortunately, as the article points out, only…
Since the introduction of the draft legislation for intergenerational business transfers (IBT) on March 28, 2023, the National tax services team at Baker Tilly Canada has reviewed the IBT rules in detail. For a convenient summary of the proposed IBT rules, please refer to the following document prepared by the…
These days, it is quite common to find intergenerational wealth transfer to consist of property held in a discretionary family trust whose beneficiaries may or may not have been in marital relationships at the time of the time the trusts were created. A siginifcant number of legal and financials issues…
A trust indenture established today looks nothing like a trust indenture established 10 or 20 years ago. The evolution of trust drafting, and the rigid legalese once used for trusts has given way to language that better anticipates the myriad of potential scenarios typically faced by today’s clients. This evolution…
If a taxpayer owns shares of a corporation and passes away, he or she is deemed to have disposed of their shareholding at fair market value (“FMV”) unless a tax-free rollover is applied (e.g., rollover to a surviving spouse). The disposition of shares may cause a tax liability. In the…
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States Constitution, provided the world with this great quote, “nothing is certain except death and taxes”. In 2021, John Oakey, the founding father of three Oakey children, is providing the world (or at least anyone reading this blog)…