Today’s blog was written by Courtney Lanthier, Law Clerk at Fasken. Having worked in this field for over 10 years now, I’ve definitely done my fair share of estate planning, but not nearly enough estate administration. Now, after a long hiatus, I’m stepping back in and starting to notice that…
This blog post was written by Dave Madan, Senior Manager, Scotiatrust Amazon Prime Day is here—and it’s a siren song of “unmissable deals” on everything from smartphones and tablets to noise‑cancelling headphones and smart doorbells. But as professionals know, a shiny new gadget can bring hidden headaches: data breaches, estate‑planning…
This blog post was written by Dave Madan, Senior Manager, Scotiatrust With the tragic passing of Val Kilmer early this month, at the age of 65, we are reminded of the pressing challenges that professional advisors face in modern estate planning. Well known for his roles in Tombstone,Top Gun, Batman:…
This blog post was written by: Dave Madan, Senior Manager, Scotiatrust Deepseek is here, as is cheap, and easily accessible AI. Many tasks have been automated by AI recently. Customer support, student education, investment management. For better or for worse, AI is here to stay. What else can we do…
This article is written by Nicole Ewing, Principal, Wealth Planning Office, TD Wealth Friends, I’ve got to call it straight, this has been a tough year. Mentally taxing, if you will. Perhaps they all are in their own way, but this one was particularly hard. Life was great, don’t get…
This week, like many law firms in Toronto, Fasken participated in the annual 2L student recruitment process. I had the opportunity to meet many wonderful students, all with impressive backgrounds and bright futures ahead. I was asked by many of the students about my practice, and what I enjoyed most…
Pictured: A screen grab from the music video for “Only Acting” by Kero Kero Bonito. It’s one of my favourite songs. It’s not quite about video wills, but it does show off some of the challenges of recording oneself. What are Video Wills? Some practitioners have floated the idea of…
The ability to verify a client’s identity virtually which was introduced during the pandemic will continue, with some modifications. The updated by-law 7.1, which comes into effect in 2024, will allow a lawyer to verify a client’s identity virtually by using technology to confirm that the government-issued photo identification is valid and matches the client.
The Superior Court of Justice issued a new Consolidated Civil Provincial Practice Direction for all civil proceedings effective as of June 15, 2023. In addition, the Brampton court office has adopted new procedures for civil matters designed to lead to a more effective use of court time and resources.
Tax planning can be very complicated with an Income Tax Act (“Act”) consisting of over 1.1 million words. This is a far cry from the original 4,000 words of the Act’s predecessor, Income War Tax Act[1], which was originally enacted as a temporary measure in 1917. The more than 3,000…