November 2018

Democracy – The Right to Vote for a Dead Guy

A dead Republican pimp has won a state assembly seat in Nevada – How’s that for an attention-grabbing opening? Election season in the U.S. has wrapped and it turns out that as much as we wanted to, Canadians were not allowed to vote. But this is an estates blog after all, so that leads to the main question my blog will attempt to answer: What happens when an election candidate….

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Uncategorized

Milne Estate (Re)visited

Today’s blog was co-authored by Joanna Lindenberg and Ronald Neal The decision of Milne Estate (Re) (“Milne”) caused a stir among the members of the estates bar and solicitors who draft wills, going so far as to illicit an alert from LawPRO. While the Milne decision (which is under appeal) has garnered a great deal of attention and commentary from lawyers (including Justin de Vries’ blog, which you can read….

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Contested wills, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Planning, Executors, In the News, Succession Planning, Trusts, Wills

Source of Income and the TOSI Rules: Clarification?

Since the Tax on Split Income (“TOSI”) legislation was released, there has been considerable consternation amongst professionals as to how the rules apply. Even the most sophisticated readers of the legislation agree that it contains provisions that are both ambiguous and somewhat complicated. Somewhat out of exasperation, many deal with the TOSI rules on the assumption that all income amounts received by shareholders, beneficiaries, and partners are subject to TOSI,….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Planning, In the News, Investments, Property, Real Estate, Small Business, Tax Issues, Trusts

Shining a Spotlight on (Ontario) Caregivers

The Change Foundation just published their findings on Ontario Caregivers- a fitting reflection for National Caregiving Awareness month. I have summarized some of their key findings based on a study involving 800 respondents across Ontario: – Canadian family caregivers provide roughly ¾ of all patient care and their contributions to the healthcare system was estimated at 25 billion per year. – Caregivers spend on average 11-30 hours of care per….

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Caregiving, Elder Care

Estate Considerations for YouTube and Twitch “Partners”

Today’s blog was co-written with Demetre Vasilounis, Student at Law at Fasken LLP. It is now a given that, in the 21st century, estate planners should pay attention to how clients deal with their digital assets. This is true whether such digital assets consist of social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) or money invested into software platforms for the purposes of electronic transactions within these platforms (online games, application stores)…..

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Uncategorized

Foundations with Donor Advised Funds

The current Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector seems to be quite interested in “donor advised funds” or DAFs. In particular, members of the Committee are suggesting that the Income Tax Act should be changed to require individual funds to have minimum disbursement quotas and separate regulatory reporting. This policy trial balloon is worth debating. If for no other reason than a lot of Canadians now have their philanthropic….

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Elder Law, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized
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