Estate Administration

Total 516 Posts

When Does a Class of Beneficiaries Close?

“To my grandchildren…” Sometimes, a testator will leave testamentary gifts to an undefined class of people, rather than to beneficiaries by name. Gifts might be left to “my children” or “my grandchildren” or even “the children of my niece” without any further specifications in the will[1]. This practice raises a question. Who are the precise members of this type of undefined class? Is the testator referring to people who fit….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning

How A Rumoured Las Vegas Wedding To A Russian Child Star Shook Up An Intestacy

The background to the unopposed motion was lurid: a prominent lawyer cut down before her time and a last-minute Las Vegas marriage to a former Russian child star. In Estate of Tanya Claudia Davies, 2022 ONSC 2009, the court stayed an application for a certificate of appointment of estate trustee due to the court’s general supervisory role over officers of the court and internet rumours. Tanya Davies was a prominent….

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Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, In the News

Crypto assets – Canadian or foreign – it matters!

Crypto assets are intangible digital assets that exist on a decentralized network through distributed ledger technology (DLT) – such as blockchain. A distributed ledger is a type of database that stores electronic records shared and replicated across many locations in numerous countries and maintained by a peer-to-peer world-wide decentralized network. Therefore, the crypto asset is not exclusively situated in any particular country making it difficult for the taxpayer and professionals….

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Estate Administration, Tax Issues

Has a Contingent Beneficiary Asked for an Accounting?

An estate trustee does not have an obligation to provide a contingent beneficiary with an accounting; nonetheless, some form of accounting is generally done at the request of a contingent beneficiary. If accounts are not provided, a contingent beneficiary may bring an application to compel an estate trustee to pass their accounts. This will be costly and may be what the contingent beneficiary is trying to avoid in requesting a….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Executors, Passing Of Trustees’ and Executors’ Accounts, Wills

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

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

Happy Executor, Happy Administration

Today’s blog was written by Courtney Lanthier, Law Clerk at Fasken LLP The death of a loved one is never easy to handle, but add on the additional responsibility of acting as an executor and you almost don’t have time to grieve the loss. One of the questions we should be asking our clients when starting to draft their Will is who will be the executor? It’s an important role,….

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Estate Administration, Executors
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