All About Estates

Category: In the News

Total 258 Posts

Bill 245: Innovative Updates to the Succession Law Reform Act

Dear readers, As you might recall, last April (of 2020) was the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. As part of our government’s efforts to keep Ontarians safe while still allowing access to justice, an emergency order was brought at that time to allow virtual…

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What is a Reasonable Error

Further to my last post, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) does have the discretion to waive tax penalties on excess (or deemed to be excess) contributions to Tax Free Savings Accounts (“TFSA’s) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (“RRSP”) if an excess contribution  to a TFSA or RRSP resulted from a…

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Federal 2021 Budget Highlights For Canadian Seniors

Federal Budget 2021 Highlights summarized by National Institute on Ageing: Today’s blog will highlight important 2021 budget information as it relates to Seniors.  I have used  the NIA COMMENTARY ON THE 2021 FEDERAL BUDGET[1]  as they have said better that I. 1.       Delivering an Apology to Canada’s Seniors …

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A Royal Estate

This Blog was written by: Alicia Mossington (Godin), Estate and Trust Consultant, Scotia Wealth Management  Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was born on June 10th, 1921 and passed away on April 9th 2021, at the age of 99. The Duke was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark but abandoned these…

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New Privacy Legislation Aims to Address Digital Assets in Estate Administration

Practitioners and clients alike have come to realize that there can be numerous legal challenges to administering a testator’s digital assets, including, among them, ambiguous or restrictive privacy legislation. For most Canadian provinces,[1] the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) does not appear to grant executors, trustees, or…

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Wills and Marriage: Should they go together like a horse and carriage?

This Blog was written by Emily Racine, Estate and Trust Consultant with Scotia Wealth Management Recently, the Ontario government announced changes to some important areas of estate law. One of these changes, which I would like to touch on, is a change to the rules which govern wills and marriages….

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The Slayer Law in Canada Part II: Beneficiaries Gone Bad

This Blog was written by: Alicia Mossington (Godin), Estate and Trust Consultant, Scotia Wealth Management  In December this author wrote about the common law forfeiture laws, colloquially known as “Slayer Law”, which precludes an individual from deriving a benefit from their own “morally culpable conduct.” In the context of the testator-beneficiary relationship,…

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Fake Evidence in the Era of Fake News

Today’s blog was written by Tyler Lin, student-at-law at de VRIES LITIGATION LLP Widespread embrace of social media has brought text messages, e-mails, and postings to the forefront of evidence in criminal, civil and family law disputes. These sources are supposed to allow judges to glean insight into the life…

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More Than The Monday Blues….

Friday, January 29, 2021 was ‘Bell Let’s Talk’ day and I forgot to tweet about it.   This is very surprising for me so I am reminding those of you who might have missed it as well.  Most of us are talking much more about good mental health and the toll…

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Can You Preserve Your Tattoos After Your Death?

Introduction Last year, I wrote a blog post about estate planning for tattoo artists, which focused primarily on the intellectual property rights of tattoo artists in their tattoo designs and the ways in which such rights conflict with the rights of the people who actually bear such designs on their…

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