With an aging population comes the importance of attendant care of the elderly and disabled. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was recently asked about the taxation of amounts received for attendant care services provided to a spouse or child and returned with a pleasantly surprising answer. A child received a…
Elizabeth Ann McLaughlin died at the ripe old age of 98. She was predeceased by her husband. Together they had six children, including Daniel. Daniel, as estate trustee, sought to rectify what he characterized as a solicitor’s mistake in his mother’s secondary will. For many years prior to her death,…
Clinicians and lawyers are regularly exposed to a score on the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) also known as the ‘Folstein test’ after the developer of the most widely used cognitive screening tool in the world. Yet it is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted tests in Medicine, not to…
Some donors want their wishes understood and spirit felt long after they are gone. This impulse is part of a long tradition that has found expression in restricted gifts, charitable trusts and private foundations. It’s Halloween. Let’s review three approaches to philanthropic haunting. 1. Donor Recognition Many medieval European churches…
In 1999, a pilot program was implemented in Toronto requiring mandatory mediation for all estates, trusts, and substitute decisions matters. In 2002, mandatory mediation was expanded to Windsor and Ottawa. The pilot program was considered a success and mandatory mediation has been enshrined in rule 75.1 of the Rules of…
The CRA recently began an initiative to consolidate the information provided in its income tax interpretation bulletins and income tax technical newsletters. The new publications are called “folios”. As each folio is released, it is subject to a three-month comment period. In late September, the CRA released “S6-F2-C1-Disposition of an…
As a common law jurisdiction with our roots in the United Kingdom it is understandable we have an interest in what happens “across the pond”. The UK has recently updated their inheritance laws and made large changes to their intestacy laws. Normally we look to the UK for changes but…
My colleague, Diane Vieira, recently blogged about the Divisional Court’s decision in Quinn v. Carrigan. While she highlighted what the case had to say about the proper approach to determining dependant’s support, the case is also instructive on who should bear the costs of a dependant support application. Prior to…
In my last blog, Who Knew There is a Benefit to Having Two Spouses, I spoke of the ability to benefit from a rollover for income tax purposes in respect of property that passes to two different individuals, each of whom qualifies as the spouse or common-law partner of the…
Among other medico-legal concepts, the ‘lucid interval’ is a long held concept widely accepted in case law as a possible means of countering a challenge to testamentary and related capacities. In parallel, the clinical phenomenon of cognitive fluctuation has been considered a common element of several neurodegenerative disorders (dementias) including…
