estate freeze

Estate Freeze & U.S. Citizens

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Scotiatrust

Before recommending an estate freeze to a client, advisors should first ask them a simple question: Are you a U.S. citizen? By failing to ask this question, advisors may be overlooking significant cross-border tax implications. While an estate freeze can be an effective tool for succession planning, it can come with a number of complex and sometimes punitive U.S. tax consequences when the freezor is a U.S. citizen. This article….

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Business Succession Planning, Estate Planning, Tax Issues, U.S. Citizen, United States, US Taxes

Estate Freezes and a Spouse’s ILA

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Estate freezes can raise important questions—like whether the freezor’s spouse should seek independent legal advice (“ILA”). This blog unpacks why that recommendation matters. Estate Freeze Consider the following estate freeze, which intentionally is explained in a “bare bones” manner. A spouse (“Freezor”) is exchanging their common shares in a Canadian controlled private corporation (“Family Corp.”) for fixed value preference shares. A new discretionary family trust is settled for the benefit….

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Interest, Separation, Spouse, Succession Planning, Trustee, Trusts

Marriage Contracts: Process Over (okay, at least equal to) Substance

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This blog has been written by Darren Lund, Partner at Fasken LLP.   In several of my previous blogs, I have written about marriage contracts, and why they are an important element of estate planning. From a substantive perspective, there are many reasons why these agreements are relevant and may be needed to support a comprehensive estate plan.[1] If a family business owner has implemented an estate freeze that includes….

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Estate Planning, Spouse

Newlands Revisited: Moving to the Appeal

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This blog has been written by Darren Lund, Partner at Fasken LLP In a previous blog, I wrote about the Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision in Lang-Newlands v Newlands, 2024 ONSC 6285. To briefly summarize, the Newlands case considered a number of issues, but the key issue of interest for estate planners is the court’s analysis of an “estate freeze” transaction that occurred during the parties’ marriage. Barbara and….

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Estate Planning, Family Conflict, Separation, Succession Planning, Trusts, Uncategorized

Turbulent Times and Estate Planning

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This blog has been written by Rahul Sharma, Partner, at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto The world is changing very fast and conversations that I am having with people today include generous helpings of “T” words other than “tax” and “trust.”  I could try to keep count of how many times I hear the word “tariff”, but the score is obviously high.  So much so, in fact, that even my elementary….

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Estate Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, valuation

NEWLANDS: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF ESTATE FREEZES IN THE FAMILY COURTS?

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This blog has been written by Darren Lund, Partner at Fasken LLP In Lang-Newlands v. Newlands, 2024 ONSC 6285, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice revisited the treatment of a discretionary family trust in the context of the equalization of net family property under the Ontario Family Law Act. Barbara Lang-Newlands (“Barb”) and Ian Newlands (“Ian”) were married on August 21, 1987 and separated on July 31, 2019. There were….

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Estate Planning, Family Conflict, Separation, Succession Planning, Trusts
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