Wills

Total 466 Posts

Don’t let your favourite TV show fool you…

Today’s blog was written by Courtney Lanthier, law clerk at Fasken LLP I was watching a show recently where, when a character passed away, he left his family a video message that included how he wanted to divide his estate. As someone who recently started drafting wills and working through estate administration files, I immediately thought – would this be considered a valid will? While a videotaped message setting out….

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Wills

CRA issues favourable ruling on post-mortem pipelines

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been asked on numerous occasions to weigh in on whether specific post-mortem planning implemented by taxpayers to avoid double taxation would result in a deemed dividend. In a recent ruling, the CRA concluded that it would not apply either specific tax rules or the General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) to the proposed transactions. When an individual dies holding shares of a private corporation with….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Planning, Small Business, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Wills

YODO! – You Only Die Once

This blog was written by Sierra Nunno While many young people cling to the acronym YOLO, which stands for ‘you only live once,’ the truth is YODO… you only die once. Ideally, upon death, our wishes are carried out according to plan and we rest peacefully. But what if there was no plan in the first place? The Covid-19 pandemic has forced young Canadians to confront an uncomfortable reality –….

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Estate Planning, Wills

Charitable remainder trusts: what are they and when are they useful?

A charitable remainder trust (CRT), although not widely used in Canada, can be a useful charitable giving tool that generates an immediate tax credit for the donor. In an inter vivos context, an individual establishes an alter ego trust and transfers property to the trust on a tax-deferred basis. The trust holds the property for the benefit of the individual during the individual’s lifetime, entitling the individual to the trust’s income but….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Charitable Giving, Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Tax Issues, Wills

The Question of Executor: Who, What, When, Where and Why?

This blog was written by Maggie Dalke – Estate and Trust Consultant with Scotia Wealth Management Estate planning can be very complex and there is always a lot of detail to cover with our clients. We look at how to achieve a tax efficient estate, address estate liquidity, beneficiary designations, family dynamics, cross-border considerations and how estate law intersects with other areas of law such as family law, corporate law….

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Estate Planning, Executors, Wills

A Tale of Two Versions: The Court of Appeal Invalidates a Will

My colleague Joanna Lindenberg and I had previously blogged on the case of Bayford v. Boese (the decision and the costs decision, respectively) where the court upheld the validity of a challenged will (the second of two ‘versions’ of the same will). However, in Bayford v. Boese, 2021 ONCA 442 the Court of Appeal has set aside the lower court’s decision and invalided the will. The deceased Bruce Boese had….

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Contested wills, Estate Litigation, Executors, Wills
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