Estate Administration

Total 502 Posts

Contributor/settlor Taxable Income and T3 Reporting Requirements

As most trust and tax practitioners know, The Income Tax Act (“ITA”) will attribute trust income, losses, capital gains and capital losses to the contributor / settlor if certain conditions are met. The 2016 T3 Guide states the following: Certain related amounts, including taxable capital gains and allowable capital losses from that property or the substituted property, are considered to belong to the contributor during the contributor’s life or existence….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized

Protecting Charitable Interests

[caption id="attachment_5768" align="aligncenter" width="377"] Charities may struggle with a lack of resources and expertise when defending an interest in an estate.[/caption] Are charities in a will easier to challenge when there are more than five entities named?   This topic came up at a recent lunch with estate planning and litigation colleagues.  One told a cautionary tale of a large estate that was litigated away from a dozen named charities.  The….

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Estate Administration, Estate Donations, Estate Litigation, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Control in the Valuation of Business Interests for Estate Planning

From time to time, I am asked to prepare, review or comment on structures for estate planning purposes with a mind to valuation issues. A common valuation issue is control and whether or not the value of the business interest(s) in the estate plan should be discounted for lack of control or should have premium attached to it because the holder of the business interest(s) do(es) have control. Valuators rely….

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Business Succession Planning, Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Investments, Property, Small Business, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized, Wills

The Endowment Effect

[caption id="attachment_5640" align="aligncenter" width="463"] St Miguel and the Dragon, 14th Century, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain[/caption] People value objects more when they own or possess them – or at least when they presume ownership.   In cognitive psychology this phenomenon is called the “endowment effect”.    It’s a concept that was seemingly invented to describe a lot of behaviour related to estates, philanthropy and foundations.   It’s time to give it….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

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

The Ontario Estate Information Return – An Estate Trustee’s Nightmare

As of January 1, 2015, a Regulation under the Estate Administration Tax Act, 1998, O Reg 310/14 requires estate trustees to give an Estate Information Return to the Ministry of Finance within 90 calendars days of a certificate of appointment of estate trustee (“Estate Certificate”) being issued. The Estate Information Return requires disclosure of a comprehensive list of information about the deceased person, including “a complete list of the assets….

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Estate Administration, Executors
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