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Celebrating

our 10th year
blog anniversary

Category: Blog

Unknown Unknowns: Pension Rights and Estate Planning

While it is less common these days for employment benefits to include a pension, many individuals still do have either a pension (not including the Canada Pension Plan, which is subject to its own rules and which is not the subject of this blog) or a locked-in retirement account (LIRA)

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The Cautionary Tale of Mutual Wills

Estate planning deals with often complex family situations, including the needs of blended families with complicated personal relationships. The goal of estate planning is to ensure your intentions for your loved ones are carried out. There are several ways to address blended family and second marriage situations so that the

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Embracing Change

We all sense the increasing speed of change that permeates all aspects of our everyday lives. Whether it’s technology, political or economic events, or even the weather with climate change, the constant is change itself. And with constant change comes the need to adapt to it, or even better –

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Children, Equality and Inheritance: Your Final Legacy

On May 4, 2018, we celebrate our firm’s 20th anniversary. I thought it would be fitting as well as helpful to reflect on one of the most challenging questions in family succession: whether children should be treated equally. Being a trust and estate lawyer now for over thirty-five years has

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Tax Reform Revealed: Will the U.S. Become the Best Next Tax Haven?

On April 26, 2017, with great fan-fare, the White House announced bold proposals for tax reform, the primary objective of which is to stimulate economic growth. These reforms could be a real game-changer if they succeed in creating new jobs, fuelling economic expansion, and making the U.S. more competitive –

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Fun in the Sun, Until the Probate Court Comes?

While this winter in Toronto has been blessedly mild, colder weather makes many of us wonder why we live in a cold climate, or at least envy those who have vacation homes in warmer climates. While a vacation home in Florida or Arizona or other southern destinations may be a

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Don’t let cross-border properties turn into cross-border pains

Perhaps I should refrain from re-stating the obvious, but it bears repeating–we live in an increasingly global and mobile society, where people move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with relative ease. And when we’re not picking up and moving residences, we’re travelling to foreign destinations and buying property, opening bank accounts

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Redefining Family

Sometimes the law leads in pushing societal change forward, but often it lags far behind, particularly in the face of scientific innovation and rapid technological change. Over the past forty years or so, even how we define family has been subject to fundamental change, and in the future it will

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Canada, the U.S. and Going Borderless: Nowhere to Hide

Perspective is important and illuminating–only about fifteen years ago, or perhaps even less, it was not common to have to consider the impact our Canadian and U.S. tax and legal regimes have on estate planning and our affairs in general. The 49th parallel and the world’s longest undefended border symbolized

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