Evaluation of Decision Making Capacity: Aiming for an Improved Standard of Care

Evaluation of decision-making capacity is inherent to the practice of law and medicine and is not the exclusive responsibility or expertise of either. Lawyers may need to assess (among other things) capacity to instruct counsel; to provide evidence; to stand trial; to appoint or revoke Powers of Attorney; to make a contract, a gift, or execute a will; to marry, divorce and/or reconcile. In healthcare, clinicians are confronted mostly with….

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Capacity Law, Disability, Elder Care, Elder Law, Estate Litigation, Geriatric Care Management, Guardianship, Healthcare, Power of Attorney, Powers Of Attorney and Guardianship Disputes, Testamentary Capacity, Undue influence

Can You Preserve Your Tattoos After Your Death?

Introduction Last year, I wrote a blog post about estate planning for tattoo artists, which focused primarily on the intellectual property rights of tattoo artists in their tattoo designs and the ways in which such rights conflict with the rights of the people who actually bear such designs on their skin.[1] In response to my post, I received an interesting article about the developing technique of post-death tattoo preservation.[2] The….

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Estate Administration, Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Executors, Family Conflict, Funeral Planning, In the News, Trustee

Cultural Property Donations Update

[caption id="attachment_6826" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Iris bleus, jardin du Petit Gennevilliers, 1892, Gustave Caillebotte, Art Gallery of Ontario[/caption] The charitable tax incentives for donations of certified Cultural Property – art and artifacts – is the richest in Canada.  Cultural Property donations are exempt from capital gains tax and can be claimed against 100% of the donor’s net annual income over up to six years. The incentive is part of a complex….

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Estate Donations, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Estate Planning Lessons from “The Dutch House”

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, is an excellent read. However, for those in the estate planning profession, it is also a reflection on what goes wrong when insufficient or no estate planning occurs…..

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Business Succession Planning, Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Family Conflict, Fiduciary Professions, In the News, Small Business, Spouse, Succession Planning

FAMILY TRUSTS AND DISTRIBUTIONS OF CAPITAL GAINS

Capital gain splitting on the sale of business interests, owned by family trusts with several beneficiaries, continues to be a valuable tool for tax planning purposes, including the opportunity under certain circumstances to access the super capital gains exemption more than once in such a transaction. However, the beneficiaries of a trust who are designated an allocation of proceeds from a share sale and stand to benefit from applying the….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Small Business, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized

January is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

There has been so much going on that you may not know that January is Alzheimers Awareness month. Covid has taken over as the lead medical concern world wide. However I feel it important to recognize another major health issue that impacts many of us – which is dementia. I have written extensively about living with dementia primarily from the caregiver/family’s perspective, however the voices of those who have dementia….

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Caregiving, Elder Care
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