Today, over half of Canadians own a pet. However, a recent survey shows only 7% of pet owners have made formal arrangements for them. If there is no provision in your estate plans, your beloved pet might not be taken care of in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed.
In theory, obtaining a judgement should mark the end of litigation. In practice, it can be the beginning of the just as tedious process of collecting on the judgement by way of enforcement proceedings. The plaintiff in the case of Akhavan v Taheri found this out the hard way. On…
Todays blog has been co-written with Murray Braithwaite, Partner, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto There has been case law in the past two years where the court has used its discretion to vary the rate of interest on legacies that have not been paid within the “executor’s year” from 5%…
Reposted: Most of us avoid talking about death, but in reality many of us think about it regularly. None of us know what the future brings but death is a certainty. We just don’t know when and how. The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) was recently celebrated, closely followed by…
A person’s house is often their most valuable assets – both monetarily and emotionally. As a result, testators tend to put a lot of thought into who, and how, they wish to leave their house. However, as is always the case, best laid plans often go awry. One example of this, explored in the 2022 Court of Appeal of Ontario decision Barsoski Estate v Wesley, is when it is unclear whether the will gifts someone with a life interest in the house or a licence to use the property.
I thought I would mix things up today and repost this blog, written by my son. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I believe in what I refer to as the Something Wonderful Theory. Since you never know when something wonderful is about to happen in your life, you might as live view each new…
A Thought Experiment Recently, I had the opportunity to co-author a paper on deathbed retainers with Justin de Vries. In drafting this paper, I had the occasion to think about deathbed wills from every conceivable angle. The idea for this blog started as footnote 81: a hypothetical thought experiment on…
Last week, my colleague Yvonne Mazurak wrote a blog post about a recently-released television show, And Just Like That, discussing the estate planning issues highlighted by the events of the show. So, I thought I would provide a bit of a television recommendation show of my own…although my taste is…
What is Hotchpot? In estates law, “hotchpot” is a legal term of art.[1] It is an umbrella term that covers a few related concepts (e.g., a hotchpot clause, common law presumptions of hotchpot, intestacy legislation on the same). In essence, the purpose of hotchpot is to prevent one beneficiary from…
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…
