Uncategorized

Total 674 Posts

Family Money Messages

• • 8 Comments

My friend Aneil Gokhale, Director of Philanthropy at the Toronto Foundation, has a talent for facilitating discussions about money.  What messages do we inherit and how do they inform our inclination for, and approach to, giving?  These messages are the software that influence future behaviour, including openness to giving to charity, during life and at death. Ingrained messages In every session that Aneil leads, he coaxes out deeply ingrained messages….

Family Money Messages Continue Reading »

Philanthropy/Charitable Giving, Uncategorized

Duties to Vulnerable Individuals: Lessons from Lewicki v. Bascus

• • 0 Comments

The recent decision in Lewicki v. Bascus et al., 2025 ONSC 6224 reiterates the duties lawyers and attorneys for property or personal care have to vulnerable persons. Attorneys have a duty to refrain from influencing vulnerable persons with their personal opinions to further their own self-interest. Lawyers have a duty to enforce safeguards when dealing with vulnerable clients to ensure their decisions are independent and rooted in logic. Lionel Bascus….

Duties to Vulnerable Individuals: Lessons from Lewicki v. Bascus Continue Reading »

Uncategorized

Introducing Incapacity Literacy and the Canadian Centre for Decision-Making Capacity

• • 0 Comments

When there is any concern that a client cannot capably make their own decisions about their financial or legal matters, it is important for a planning professional to inform their client that a person typically cannot self-identify whether they are incapable to make decisions. That person will need to rely on others to identify whether they are capable or not, so as to protect their interests from harm. Throughout the….

Introducing Incapacity Literacy and the Canadian Centre for Decision-Making Capacity Continue Reading »

Uncategorized

Protecting Charitable Interests

• • 0 Comments

Are will challenges easier when there are charitable beneficiaries?  Moreover, if there are more charities named in the will does that heighten the likelihood of legal contest? This is the kind of “shop talk” that happens when charitable gift planners get together with trust professionals and lawyers.  One lawyer told a cautionary tale of a large estate that was litigated away from a dozen named charities.  The charities lacked the….

Protecting Charitable Interests Continue Reading »

Uncategorized

Court Interventions in a Trustee’s Exercise of Discretion

• • 0 Comments

In the recent decision of Pitt v. Beattie, 2025 ONSC 5654 (CanLII) (“Beattie”), the court considered the rule in Saunders v. Vautier and whether the sole beneficiary of a trust could demand a larger distribution than the trustee was willing to provide. In Beattie, the last will and testament provided that the residue of the estate was to be held in trust until the beneficiary turned 25. At the time….

Court Interventions in a Trustee’s Exercise of Discretion Continue Reading »

Uncategorized

Corporate Documentation – Key to Executor

• • 0 Comments

As part of a good estate plan for a business owner, it is important to ensure the business documentation is current and easily accessible to the executor. Keeping up-to-date documentation will minimize the risk of an oversight by the executor or a mistake resulting from obsolete documentation. What documents should be kept current? Here is a non-exhaustive list: Corporate minute book – it is important for the corporate minute book….

Corporate Documentation – Key to Executor Continue Reading »

Uncategorized
Scroll to Top