September 2025

Canadians Beware – U.S. Move To End Paper Cheques for Federal Payments

On March 25th, 2025, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 4247 (“EO 4247”) directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury to transition all federal disbursements and collections into electronic format; effectively ending the use of paper cheques. By September 30th, 2025, paper cheques for federal payments (notably tax refunds and social security payments) will cease. How is this relevant to Canadians? Hurdle for Canadians EO 4247 may represent a hurdle….

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IRS, Tax Issues, U.S. Citizen, United States, US Taxes

How to be an Effective Attorney for Personal Care

Father speaks to son. They are sitting on a couch in a living room. Father gesticulates to son.

Life happens. In an instant, you may find yourself as a substitute decision-maker for a person or relative. You may have forgotten you agreed to act as their Attorney for Personal Care. Or in some cases, it comes as a surprise that you have been appointed by a parent or relative. In the blog post, “Why You Need a POA When You Are Alive”, we explored the importance of appointing….

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Elder Management, Power of Attorney, Smart Ageing

Gift or Loan? A Family Feud Unwrapped in Court

This blog post was written by Mohena Singh, Associate at Fasken LLP In the realm of family law and financial planning, the case of Klemensiewicz v. Klemens et al sheds light on the intricacies of familial financial support, particularly the distinction between gifts and loans. Often as estate planners, we see that individuals want to provide for their family members both during their lifetime and through their estate after passing. Many individuals prefer….

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Courts, Estate Planning, Family Conflict

AI Generated Wills: Can Courts Fix a Robot’s Mistake?

scotiatrust

This blog post was written by: Dave Madan, Senior Manager, Scotiatrust   AI has started writing Wills. That might sound futuristic, but it’s already happening. Generative tools can churn out documents that look polished, formatted, and ready to sign. But what happens when those words don’t match what the person actually intended? Can a court fix an AI-generated Will the way it might fix a solicitor’s drafting error?   Think….

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Contested wills, Estate Planning

What is the “Entire File”?

In Yurkiw Estate (Re), 2025 BCSC 1026 (CanLII), the Supreme Court of British Columbia clarified the scope of an estate trustee’s file that must be disclosed to beneficiaries. On November 21, 2024, the court ordered Heritage Trust, the estate trustee of the estate of David Thomas George Yurkiw, to produce its “entire file” to one of the beneficiaries of the estate, except for “any documents over which solicitor client privilege can….

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