Disability

Total 81 Posts

Further Reform Needed to Support Disability Benefits Recipients

As my fellow bloggers have recently written, changes have been made to the Ontario Disability Support Program (“ODSP”) effective September 1, 2017, three of which are of particular importance for estate planning purposes: The amount a benefits recipient can receive in the form of gifts, trust distributions, and life insurance proceeds (“voluntary payments”) has been increased from $6,000 per year to $10,000 per year; The benefits recipient can receive a….

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Disability, Tax Issues

Will Planning for Beneficiaries

In what might be one of the last pipeline transactions my office will advise on (depending on the outcome of the Government of Canada tax proposals), I ran into an unfortunate situation which served to highlight a fundamental aspect of estate planning: Planning for your beneficiaries. Recently, I reached out to the beneficiaries of the estate I am working on to determine their personal tax positions for this current year…..

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Business Succession Planning, Disability, Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized, Wills

Schizophrenia in Late Life and Impact on Decision-Making Capacity

Schizophrenia in adults is the most common illness causing psychosis (a loss of contact with reality, a lack of ability to tell what is real from what is not real in some way). Schizophrenia generally commences in late adolescence or less commonly after age 40 referred to as late onset schizophrenia in DSM-5. Seniors with schizophrenia will likely have had an early onset of the disease with chronic persistent mental….

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Disability, Elder Care, Uncategorized

Suicide and Seniors

In last week’s blog, my colleague Dr. Shulman highlighted the ten ‘D’s of Geriatric Psychiatry . The ‘D’ that I would like to comment on today is depression which is closely linked to his last ‘D’ which is death. I have blogged over the years that contrary to popular belief, depression is not a normal part of the aging process. The Canadian Association For Suicide Prevention reports that 10 seniors….

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Disability, Elder Care, Funeral Planning

The Ten D’s of Geriatric Psychiatry

In my consulting work, I have provided independent medical/legal assessments of seniors regarding capacity to sign powers of attorney, capacity to manage property and personal care, capacity to marry, capacity to provide instructions, capacity to provide evidence and both retrospective and contemporaneous assessments of testamentary capacity and capacity to provide inter vivos gifts. I have been accredited as an expert witness in contemporaneous and retrospective assessments by the Ontario Superior….

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Capacity Law, Disability, Elder Care, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Geriatric Care Management, Testamentary Capacity

QUALIFIED DISABILITY TRUST (“QDT”): HOW TO FILE A JOINT ELECTION?

Recently, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) issued a “how to file” the joint election for a trust to be a QDT: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t3qdt/README.html From 2016 forward, this form is to be used if one or more beneficiaries are jointly electing that the trust be designated to be QDT for the year. The form should be filed with the trust return (T3) for the year. The filing of a joint election designates….

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Capacity Law, Disability, Estate Administration, Guardianship, Tax Issues, Testamentary Capacity, Trustee, Trusts, Uncategorized
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