All About Estates

Category: Funeral Planning

Total 29 Posts

Ontario’s Rising Problem of Unclaimed Bodies

There have been a few news articles published in the past year highlighting a growing problem in Ontario – unclaimed bodies. According to a recent Toronto Star article, there were 1,183 unclaimed bodies in Ontario this year. A CBC article reporting on the same issue found that there has been…

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Hot Topics with Gentlemen in their 80s

Recently, I returned for my fourth annual presentation to a group of older gentlemen about planning for the last decade of life. With more than fifty in the audience each year, the participants are a good cross-section of men in their 80s. They are a lively, well-informed group of retired…

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Burials in Rural Ontario – Make Sure You Plan for Interment Rights

As planners working with elderly clients and their families, we encourage people to plan their lives until the end of life and document their wishes for the care of their body after death. People often express their wish to return to a rural community for burial. However, since the COVID…

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Canadian State Funerals, a deep dive

My dog and I have a habit of visiting our neighbours at least once a week. After Final Jeopardy, maybe on a Tuesday or Wednesday, I ask George if she wants to go visiting, and my little cockapoo loses her little dog mind, races to the door, and charges down…

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Dia De Los Muertos: grief and joy

Autumn is my favourite time of year. It’s often frantically busy with work, but when I have a chance to lift my head up from year-end responsibilities, I savour the reminders of abundance, the wealth of the harvest in this corner of the world, and the crisp cool air is…

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Cremation and the Burial or Scattering of Ashes – Things to Consider

I am an avid reader and always learn something new, even when reading for pleasure. The novel I recently finished, Cold, Cold Bones, by Kathy Reichs was no exception. This is the paragraph that piqued my interest: “A woman in Mount Holly was struck by a falling object while wrapping…

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You’re not my mother!

A child’s relationship with their parents is complicated. If a child is in extended society care, previously known as being a Crown ward, that’s probably an understatement. But what happens in the unfortunate situation that a child under society care passes away? Nobody likes to contemplate the death of a…

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Estate Planning for Eco-Conscious Canadians: Arranging an Eco-Friendly Death

This Blog was written by Lara Besharat   Throughout the last year and a half, the pandemic, and the precarious nature of our collective health, has rested firmly at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This has led to a significant increase in estate planning. However, for many, there is still one…

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Can You Preserve Your Tattoos After Your Death?

Introduction Last year, I wrote a blog post about estate planning for tattoo artists, which focused primarily on the intellectual property rights of tattoo artists in their tattoo designs and the ways in which such rights conflict with the rights of the people who actually bear such designs on their…

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LIFE INSURANCE IN THE COVID-19 ERA

As someone who has been around the life insurance industry in a professional and personal capacity for several decades, I am always curious about what motivates people to buy or not buy life insurance. I understand that few people spend time thinking about the consequences of low-probability events and are…

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