Estate Planning

Total 1068 Posts

Legislative Amendments Proposed in Light of Calmusky

On March 16, 2020, the Superior Court of Ontario released its decision in Calmusky v Calmusky. In Calmusky, the Court applied the presumption of resulting trust to a RIF that was designated to a particular beneficiary. The beneficiary was unable to rebut the presumption, and the Court ordered that funds from the RIF were to be paid to the estate. For a more detailed discussion on Calmusky, see Demetre Vasilounis’….

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Contested wills, Contracts, Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Executors, Investments, Joint Tenancy, Resulting Trust, Trusts

New Year, New Encounters

Another year, another lockdown. It was not my intention for my first blog of 2021 to concern COVID-19 but, alas, here we are. Although COVID-19 continues to impact our daily lives, new measures have been implemented by the Courts and by Legal Practices to allow us to continue to properly service our clients. As I continue to discover, additional new measures or encounters still arise from time to time. The….

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Caregiving, Elder Care, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Wills

When Are You Married?

Most know that you don’t have to be legally married to have a “spouse” for income tax purposes, although legal marriage will work. If you have been living with someone in a conjugal relationship for 12 months or more regardless of your sex at birth, you will be considered spouses for tax purposes. You can ignore the 12 month requirement if you are living together and you are both parents….

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Contested wills, Courts, Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Family Conflict, Spouse, Testamentary Capacity, Uncategorized, Wills

Residual Interest Gifts of Homes

Can you donate the residual interest of a principal residence to charity?  Absolutely!  The question, however, is not can it be done, but should it be done.  In most cases, the answer is no – especially for the charity. Structuring Options Let me address the structuring options first.  It is possible to donate a home to charity with an intervening life (or term) interest.  This means one or more persons….

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Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Trusts, Uncategorized

U.S. Estate tax exposure – it’s political!

The 2020 U.S. election is over and the votes have been tabulated, and in some counties the votes have even been tabulated more than once.   Unless there is some Republican wild card waiting to be plucked out of the proverbial magic hat, then Joe Biden will be inaugurated president of the United States on January 20, 2021, and with President Biden comes a proposed change in tax policy. The headline….

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Estate Planning, Real Estate, Tax Issues, U.S. Citizen, US Taxes

Do Personalty Clauses Cover All Personalty?

Today’s blog was written by guest blogger, Yvonne Mazurak, Articling Student at  Fasken LLP. With today being Black Friday, it seemed appropriate to write a post about things. Afterall, many of us will likely spend some time this weekend taking advantage of Black Friday deals and buying things for our loved ones (and possibly for ourselves as well). Personal items, or personalty, can be bequeathed to beneficiaries through the use….

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Contested wills, Estate Planning
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