Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

Total 169 Posts

Charitable Remainder Trusts in Canada

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The Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) is a gift planning structure that rarely works in Canada.  An import from the U.S. – where it is an integral part of the gift and estate tax regime – the CRT in Canada has fewer tax and planning benefits.  It’s a foreign plant that doesn’t thrive in the Canadian soil. CRTs in the U.S. Introduced in 1969, U.S. CRTs are a defined structure in….

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

Estate Donations to Government

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The title of this blog may provoke laughter, or perhaps, just head-shaking disbelief.  But estate donations to various levels of government do happen. The trick is to ensure that the donor’s intentions are carried out. The Crown – i.e. federal and provincial governments – and Canadian municipalities are qualified donees under the Income Tax Act. Agents of the Crown are also generally included – for example, government agency or university….

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Estate Donations, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Donations from Spousal and Other Trusts

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[caption id="attachment_11560" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Operation, Christian Schad, Lenbachhaus, Munich[/caption] To paraphrase the common law, a gift must be “freely given without consideration”. “Consideration” means without expectation of benefit, which eliminates contractual or other binding rights. This concept was addressed by my colleague Darren Lund in a recent All About Estates blog on charitable donations from alter ego and spousal trusts. Tax Credit or Certainty? The issue: how can a testamentary….

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

Transferring Wealth During Your Lifetime

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I was reading recently that approximately $30-trillion in assets will be shifting from one generation to the next across North America in the next few decades, according to consulting firm Accenture. A couple of years ago, I wrote about gifting cash or assets during one’s lifetime as an alternative method of distributing your wealth and possibly avoid taxes at time of death. Though there is no inheritance tax in Canada….

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Business Succession Planning, Estate Planning, Investments, Loans, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Probate Tax, Real Estate, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized

Best Laid Plans: The Sculpture Fund

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[caption id="attachment_11235" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Florence Wyle and Frances Loring, 1919.  Photo by Robert Flaherty[/caption]   Frances Loring (1887–1968) and Florence Wyle (1881–1968) were Canadian sculptors and life partners. In 1963 they prepared mirror wills to “assist and encourage Canadian Sculpture” through a testamentary trust, The Sculpture Fund.  Their beloved home, a Victorian church in mid-town Toronto, was to become a meeting place for sculptors and artists.  But after their deaths,….

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