The Stratford Festival has included ‘King Lear’ among this year’s performances.  ‘Lear’, of course, is the poster boy for older adults who use poor judgment in determining how and when to distribute their assets to their children.  The opening of King Lear reveals the King’s intent to divest his kingdom…

Many estate plans include a transfer of property (e.g. shares of a privately held corporation) to a company and freeze the value (or price) of the transferred property to the current owners at the transfer date. To avoid some punitive provisions in the Income Tax Act associated with non-arm’s length…

The Ontario Superior Court recently addressed the question of the limitation period applicable to a will challenge.[1] The challenge in this case was brought by the testatrix’s son. The testatrix, Eleanor, died on June 4, 2011. She left Primary and Secondary Wills executed on April 9, 2011 that left specific…

I have always stated that the Power of Attorney for Finances needs to be able to support the decisions made by the Power of Attorney for Personal Care. In order words, care needs should dictate where monies should be spent. The first part of the equation is understanding what the…

An emerging trend in estate administration in the past few years seems to be an increase in the number of insolvent estates. An estate is insolvent if it has liabilities in excess of its assets and therefore is unable to meet financial obligations with creditors as the debts become due….

In my last blog I referred to Thomas Piketty’s new book, ‘Capital in the Twenty First Century’. Thomas Piketty is an acclaimed economist and his book is a compilation of extensive studies about capital and capital flows. Capital has a variety of different meanings. In this book ‘capital’ is defined…

A new study reported on this week found that daughters are significantly more helpful than sons when it comes to taking care of their elderly parents.  Referencing data found from surveying 26,000 Americans, it seems that daughters spend on average 12.3 hours a month looking after an elderly parent versus…

Over the years since All About Estates has existed there have been several blogs dealing with the roles and responsibilities of acting as an executor/trustee, as well as the potential liability an executor/trustee faces. As estate planners we work with our clients in understanding the “job” of being an executor/trustee…

With the tragic death of Robin Williams, who touched so many of us with his humour, this week’s blog is about mental health and specifically, depression. The Canadian Coalition for Seniors Mental Health tells us that depression is the most common mental health problem for older adults and has ‘profound…