Estate Administration

Total 495 Posts

What Stuff?

Scotiatrust

This blog post was written by: Patricia Chartrand, Estate and Trust Consultant, Scotiatrust Vancouver Scandinavian death cleaning is the act of purging the superfluous and keeping the necessary in anticipation of your passing. The result is leaving the smallest physical footprint upon passing. It takes much less effort for your executors to distribute your life’s detritus as it was intentionally comprised only of things that had utility, a well-curated collection…..

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning

Ontario Estate Information Return Essentials

  The Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario recently hosted an education session on Ontario’s Estate Administration Tax (“EAT”) and the Estate Information Return (“EIR”), presented by a representative of the Ontario Ministry of Finance (“MOF”). I was particularly interested in this session as I wrote about the new online filing process for EIRs in my last blog post https://allaboutestates.ca/estate-information-return-the-new-online-process/. Today’s blog will share some of the key takeaways from….

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Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Planning, Probate Tax, Tax Issues, Wills

Articles and Personal Effects – Oversight for Wills

Scotiatrust

This blog post was written by: Holly Van Schouwen, Estate and Trust Consultant, Scotiatrust Victoria It’s a sad time, A parent has passed on and the adult children are reviewing the Will.  One or more of the children are named to provide oversight in distribution of personal effects (articles).  This can become a contentious issue if there are strained relations within the family. Where there is no specific language around….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors, Trustee Disputes, Wills

Avoiding an Accidental Intestacy: A Reminder for Drafting Lawyers

I recently had the pleasure of leading a course for lawyers who want to learn how to draft Wills (or improve their existing skills). One of the topics that we discussed at some length was how best to draft a residue provision in a Will, where there are multiple residuary beneficiaries. I thought it may be helpful to summarize a key discussion point from our session here, as in my….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Wills

Removal of Estate Trustees Upheld by Ontario Court of Appeal

In MacBeth Estate v. MacBeth, 2025 ONCA 360 CanLII (“MacBeth Estate”) the lower court’s decision was affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal. The appellants appealed the lower court’s decision on the basis that the motion judge (i) erred in denying the appellants an adjournment; (ii) erred in removing them as estate trustees; and (iii) erred in permitting a holdback of only $50,000 (the estate trustees argued for a much….

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Costs, Estate Administration

The Rising Cost of Not Living and the CPP Death Benefit

This blog has been written by Sandra Arsenault, Law Clerk at Fasken LLP. On January 1, 2025, amendments to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Death Benefit came into effect, introducing a top-up for eligible deceased individuals. While this reform is long-overdue, the net benefit overall for most individuals still fails to cover the costs of even the most basic death expenses in 2025. The majority of Canadians will continue to….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors
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