Malcolm Burrows, Author at All About Estates

Charitable Remainder Trusts in Canada

Malcolm Burrows • January 30, 2020 • 3 Comments

The Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) is a gift planning structure that rarely works in Canada. An import from the U.S. – where it is an integral part of the gift and estate tax regime – the CRT in Canada has fewer tax and planning benefits. It’s a foreign plant that doesn’t thrive in the Canadian soil. CRTs in the U.S. Introduced in 1969, U.S. CRTs are a defined structure in….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Trusts

Estate Donations to Government

Malcolm Burrows • December 12, 2019 • 2 Comments

The title of this blog may provoke laughter, or perhaps, just head-shaking disbelief. But estate donations to various levels of government do happen. The trick is to ensure that the donor’s intentions are carried out. The Crown – i.e. federal and provincial governments – and Canadian municipalities are qualified donees under the Income Tax Act. Agents of the Crown are also generally included – for example, government agency or university….

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Estate Donations, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Donations from Spousal and Other Trusts

Malcolm Burrows • November 14, 2019 • 0 Comments

[caption id="attachment_11560" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Operation, Christian Schad, Lenbachhaus, Munich[/caption] To paraphrase the common law, a gift must be “freely given without consideration”. “Consideration” means without expectation of benefit, which eliminates contractual or other binding rights. This concept was addressed by my colleague Darren Lund in a recent All About Estates blog on charitable donations from alter ego and spousal trusts. Tax Credit or Certainty? The issue: how can a testamentary….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Trustee

Best Laid Plans: The Sculpture Fund

Malcolm Burrows • October 17, 2019 • 4 Comments

[caption id="attachment_11235" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Florence Wyle and Frances Loring, 1919. Photo by Robert Flaherty[/caption] Frances Loring (1887–1968) and Florence Wyle (1881–1968) were Canadian sculptors and life partners. In 1963 they prepared mirror wills to “assist and encourage Canadian Sculpture” through a testamentary trust, The Sculpture Fund. Their beloved home, a Victorian church in mid-town Toronto, was to become a meeting place for sculptors and artists. But after their deaths,….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Wine and Estate Planning

Malcolm Burrows • September 12, 2019 • 11 Comments

I recently went looking for information to assist wine and spirit collectors with their estate planning. To my surprise there is little material online. It’s easy to uncovered truth by drinking wine – “in vivo veritas” – but much harder to find a comprehensive Canadian resource about estate planning for collectors. After meditating on this paucity over a bottle of Okanagan pinot noir that I found in my cellar (well,….

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Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Uncategorized

Donor Recognition: Servants, Saints and Super Heroes

Malcolm Burrows • July 25, 2019 • 3 Comments

In 15th and 16th century Europe donor recognition was negotiable. The biggest donors gave to the church, but the best way to be recognized in a durable way was to underwrite religious art. Albrecht Dürer’s circa 1500 triptych, the Paumgartner Altarpiece, is one of the most arresting examples of the complex dynamic that did, and still does, shape the process of showing gratitude to donors. Donors as Servants The main….

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Charitable Giving, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving