As the holidays approach, so too does December 31st or the end of a calendar year. This date can mean different things to different people. For those in the business of estate and tax planning, the spectre of December 31st often leads to calls from clients who are looking to:…
Month: December 2022
Total 12 Posts
Because the doctrine of suspicious circumstances was developed in respect of probate and wills, it cannot easily be exported into other areas of law, including contract law.
Co-author: Rock Lapalme, CPA, CA, TEP (Associate Director of Tax – Baker Tilly Canada) Most practitioners are aware that subsection 75(2) of the Income Tax Act (ITA) may apply to a trust and will attribute all income or loss from a trust’s property back to the person (transferor) from whom…
Like many families around the world, I lit the menorah for the first night of Chanukah. It is always a magical time to chant a familiar tune that has been passed from generation to generation. It is a time to remember, not only the history of how the holiday came…
Hectic, chaotic, busy, stressful, demanding are all words that can easily be a substitute for “wonderful” when thinking about our practice at this time of the year. With in-person holiday events and functions slowly starting to return to some sort of normalcy after a quiet few years, the added demands…
On Giving Tuesday last month, The Winnipeg Foundation announced a $500 million estate donation from a local donor, Miriam Bergen. The donation is of two companies. Appleton Holdings Ltd., which owns Edison Properties, which in turn holds 27 rental apartment and commercial buildings in Winnipeg. The donor’s wished that her…
Per stirpes. It is a term that is often used in estate planning and will drafting yet is also one which frequently causes problems. Perhaps because the meaning is not always understood, even by estates practitioners, and therefore the term is misused. Or it could be because the term can…
With holidays around the corners, I thought I would repost a seasonal blog. The holidays can be a wonderful time to spend together with loved ones, remembering the meaning of the season and celebrating together. When visiting with and sharing time with a family member who has dementia, the challenge…
While I enjoy writing about the legal aspects of digital assets in estate planning and administration, I don’t think that I have spent enough time focusing on the work of the wonderful advisors in this space: technology consultants, lawyers and policy analysts among them. The efforts of these advisors have…
As the days get shorter, so it seems does our tolerance levels. Families seem to be a lot more stressed. As I have always said, families are complicated and whether it is the aftermath of two years of ‘social distancing’ or just a steady development of older age and more…