Drafting a will is not just about who gets what.  One critical decision often overlooked by testators is the appointment of an executor – also known as the estate trustee – the person responsible for administering the estate when the time comes.   The role of executor is not an easy one, typically involving at least a year gathering financial information, signing forms, filing taxes, paying off debts and distributing assets under the estate.   Even if you’re able to find a friend or close family member who is willing to take on the task, it could end up costi ..read more

Baby Boomers need to get a move on with their estate plans.  Investment Executive magazine recently reported on a survey of Boomers that found a stunning 44 per cent of those who planned to leave an inheritance have yet to get an estate plan in place.   With the country’s largest intergenerational transfer already underway – around $1 trillion is expected to be left behind by Canadians Boomers between 2016 and 2026 – I can only hope that the 750 respondents to the Ipsos survey, who were aged between 58 and 77, are unrepresentative of their generation as ..read more

Testators should know the risks before using joint ownership as an estate planning tool.  There are certainly good reasons for owning property jointly with a beneficiary – top among them its effectiveness as a way to transfer assets while avoiding the 1.5 per-cent probate tax otherwise payable on assets in a person’s estate.  However, there are other risks inherent in the process, as an elderly Port Hope man recently discovered when he tried to row back on a joint tenancy deal with his grand-niece after relations between them soured while he was still alive.   ..read more

Having gone to the trouble of drafting a will, you don’t want to undo your good work by letting it get lost.   If the original version of your will can not be found when the time comes for it to go into effect, your heirs could end up wasting time and money in court to ensure your wishes are carried out.   In a recent case, the family of a deceased man needed a judge to settle their estate dispute after his 2019 will went missing following his death in 2021.   According to the decision, the testator left his entire estate to his mother’s goddaughter ..read more

A recent fall in life expectancy rates is a reminder that you’re never too young to make a will.   Between 2020 and 2022, the life expectancy of the average North American dropped for the first time in decades. In the U.S., the headline figure decreased from almost 79 years to just over 76 years, while the Canadian rate suffered a less spectacular – but still significant – drop from 82 to 81.6 years.   The change was largely driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, which offered people of all ages an ugly reminder of our mortality. However, statistics from both countries ..read more

A charity’s pursuit of $400,000 in missing estate funds should remind testators just how important it is to choose the right executor.  According to a recent CBC news story, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has launched a lawsuit to recover funds it claims were misappropriated from the estate of a Manitoba man who named the charity as the sole residual beneficiary of his estate.  The charity’s lawsuit accuses one of the co-executors of withdrawing six-figure sums from the estate bank account for his own benefit, and of transferring smaller amounts to members of his own famil ..read more

The era of “substantial compliance” is well underway in Ontario.   Just over two years after lawmakers at Queen’s Park passed Bill 245, the Accelerating Access to Justice Act – moving the province from a “strict compliance” regime to one of “substantial compliance” – the legal decisions on the topic are beginning to flow thick and fast.   The change essentially allowed the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to validate wills that would otherwise have been declared void due to technical errors. Before then, Ontario was one of the last strict-compliance hold-out ..read more

Don’t forget your pooch when planning your estate.  Many families regard their pets as full members, but only a small minority reflect this fact in their wills. In one recent case, that testamentary silence helped spur a fight over the future of one-year-old mixed breed puppy Rocco Junior, following the death of his owner, Leonard Carvalho.  According to a CTV News report, Rocco Junior currently lives with Carvalho’s girlfriend at the time of his passing, Aliesha Verma. However, his sister has launched an application in Ontario Superior Court seeking to have ..read more

Testators should document their intentions when they set up joint bank accounts if they want to avoid a future estate battle over the funds.   There are good estate planning reasons for owning property jointly with a beneficiary – it can be an effective way to transfer funds while avoiding the 1.5 per-cent probate tax otherwise payable on assets in a person’s estate.  However, the ownership of funds in a joint bank account is not as straightforward as many people think, and problems arise when there is any doubt over what the testator meant to happen to that jointly-he ..read more

Estate planning should be a priority for Canada’s growing stepfamily population.  With more and more people finding relationship success at the second or third attempt and welcoming their children into fresh unions with married or common-law spouses, it seems as though the modern Canadian family unit has changed beyond recognition over the last few decades. And that feeling is backed up by the numbers.  According to Statistics Canada data collected from the most recent census in 2021, more than half a million Canadian children live in a stepfamily. Meanwhile, around 12 per cent ..read more