Betty Laidlaw

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Betty Laidlaw is a law clerk in the Trusts, Wills, Estates and Charities group at Fasken, with over 30 years experience. Betty has extensive experience assisting executors and trustees in managing complex, high-value estates and trusts. Betty specializes in the administration of estates and trusts and also focuses on estate accounting and estate litigation. Betty has received a Certificate in Estate and Trust Administration (CETA) from STEP Canada which denotes excellence in the industry. With this Certificate, Betty has received professional recognition as a specialist in estate and trust management. Betty is an affiliate member of STEP Canada and an associate member of the Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario. Email: blaidlaw@fasken.com.

What Happens if Something Happens to your Executor?

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Choosing who to name as the executor of your estate is an important decision to make when preparing your will (and a topic on which other All About Estates blogs have been written). But what happens if something happens to your executor, and they are unable or unwilling to act? Who will administer your estate? This blog will explore the scenario of an executor dying before the testator (the writer….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors, Wills

The Secret Language of Estates, and Inflation

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Estates clerks and lawyers “speak” their own language.  We use acronyms or initialisms[1] such as CAET, EIR, RCP, ARI, AET, GRE, POA and COLA.  We use abbreviations like Benys and T’ees, and we draw triangles.  The idea for this blog was born when reflecting on having to interpret a lawyer’s handwritten notes for an assistant last week and on answering a “silly” question for a corporate colleague earlier this week. ….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Uncategorized

Anything New with Passing of Accounts?

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Much has been written about the significant changes to the Ontario court probate forms and processes that came into effect on January 1, 2022, and more recently the July 1, 2022 amendments.  But, is there anything new with passing of accounts? Surprisingly, there have been no changes to the court rules and forms regarding passing of accounts since January 1, 2016.[1]  You may recall some of the 2016 changes, which….

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Estate Administration

Estate Sleuthing

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As a law clerk working in the area of estate administration, we often have to act as “detectives”.  For example, we may have to conduct searches to determine whether or not the deceased had a Will.  We may need to track down the beneficiaries named in the Will or piece together a family tree and locate family members if the deceased died intestate.  We might have to search financial records….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors, Wills

How’s it going … with the new probate forms?

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It has been two months since the new process and forms for obtaining a Certificate of Appointment (probate grant) came into effect at the beginning of the year under Ontario Regulation 709/21.  As my colleague, Sandra Arsenault, wrote in her blog “The new amendments, which come into effect as of January 1, 2022, drastically alter the probate procedure by eliminating 43 existing forms, introducing 8 new consolidated forms and amending….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors, Wills

TIPS ON BRINGING A PASSING OF ACCOUNTS APPLICATION – PART 5 (FINAL THOUGHTS)

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Today’s blog will wrap up my series of blogs related to bringing an application to pass accounts (the “Passing Application”).[1]  We will look at how an Executor/Trustee completes the Passing Application and obtains a judgment on passing of accounts. A Passing Application will either proceed without a court hearing, if no notices of objection to the accounts were filed or if objections were filed but were formally withdrawn OR with….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation
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