Estate Planning

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Does your Will reflect your wealth transfer wishes?

A sepia-toned scene photographed from above shows a magnifying glass, some photographs, a camera and lens, and an open notebook with a pencil laid across it. A pair of glasses lie in front of the notebook.

Today’s post was written by Diana Leopardi – Estate and Trust Consultant at Scotiatrust. What can be worse than having a Will that does not reflect your wealth transfer wishes…that is, not having a Will at all! Suppose you have a Will in place, it is prudent to ensure that your Will properly reflects your wealth transfer wishes. As a best practise we encourage our clients to review their Wills….

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Estate Planning, Separation, Wills

Taking Back Control of Real Property

It is important to consider estate planning objectives when entering into real estate transactions. For example, a client may intend to retain control of real property in that they intend to be able to dispose of it on death. However, if the relevant estate planning objectives are not identified and considered at the time of the transaction, other goals may be prioritized instead; this may result in the structure of….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Property, Real Estate

Identifying Dependants

This post is written by Alicia Mossington, Estate and Trust Consultant with Scotiatrust. Individuals have considerable testamentary freedom in Ontario (and other provinces). The ability to distribute an estate how you choose, is a common law principle that is deeply entrenched. In Ontario, and most provinces, the court has limited ability to interfere with a testator’s private testamentary dispositions. As the Court of Appeal in Spence stated, “no one is….

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Dependant Support, Elder Care, Estate Planning

What Happens if Something Happens to your Executor? – Part Two

It is very difficult to plan for every possible scenario when you are drafting your will. Not only is it important to consider who to name as your executor, but you also need to think about what would happen if something happened to your executor. In an earlier blog, I looked at what happens if an executor dies before the testator and offered some practical considerations. Today’s blog will explore….

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Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Executors, Trustee

Exercise Caution: Different Countries – Different Tax Regimes at Death

This blog has been written by Rahul Sharma, Partner at Fasken LLP A couple of recent telephone calls reminded me of the perils of estate and tax planning that crosses borders without proper planning. The first case is regrettably quite common.  An entrepreneur in the technology sector (we will call him “John”) is a resident of Ontario.  John partners with other like-minded, and equally talented, entrepreneurs based in the United….

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

Testamentary Charitable Trusts

[caption id="attachment_20431" align="aligncenter" width="517"] Morris Minor 1000, 1963  (Source: Wikipedia commons)[/caption] From the 19th century to about 1990, the testamentary charitable trust was an important estate planning structure.  These trusts are part of the will and are funded after death from estate assets.  At one time, testamentary trusts were the primary way for an individual to support one or more charities or charitable purposes after death.  But they have been….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized
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