our 10th year
blog anniversary
December 10, 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was a milestone in 1948 for protecting human rights. Surprisingly, older persons are not yet expressly identified as a protected group under international human rights laws. In acknowledgment of the Declaration, the UN International Day
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
Not to beat a dead horse, but it bears repeating: our population is aging. With an increase in the number of people in our society over 65 comes a variety of social and economic challenges, some of which you are no doubt already familiar with. One issue which many people
The Rule Against Perpetuities (the “Rule”) is an old and complex legal rule that aims to prevent the delay of vesting of many types of transferred property interests beyond the “Perpetuities Period” and is the bane of many lawyers who draft wills and trusts. A property interest vests when it
Having a power of attorney for property is a document we continually recommend to clients who are in the process of updating their estate plans. The purpose of a power of attorney for property is to give a named individual (the “attorney”) the authority to act on behalf of the
The increasing pace of technological change is our reality, and when it comes to estate planning, there is no exception. The traditional formalities for wills and powers of attorney are stricter than for most legal documents: for example in Ontario a will has to be in writing and signed at
In April 2017, the CBC reported that over 1,300 people in Canada have died with medical assistance since the Criminal Code was amended in 2016 to legalize medical assistance in dying (“MAID”). While this statistic points to the importance of MAID for many Canadians, the new legislation has not settled
One of the issues of increasing concern to parents is having that family wealth conversation. With increasing affluence, the present post-war baby boom generation is confronting more so than their parents had to, the best way to approach talking with their children about financial matters, including their eventual inheritance. While
A well drafted will is not worth the (stack of) paper it is written on if it fails to achieve the client’s objectives. Those objectives are often defeated where an estate plan is not properly designed, implemented, or maintained. Under the traditional approach to estate planning, the lawyer typically designs
As we look forward in our crystal ball to looming issues on the horizon for 2017, one that certainly comes to the fore is the regulation of those who provide financial advice and financial planning services, often offered under the nomenclature of “estate planning” or “retirement planning” advice. There is
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