our 10th year
blog anniversary
You may or may not have heard of the term “ethical will”. An ethical will doesn’t deal with money or assets, but instead with values, beliefs, words of wisdom, inner thoughts, and family history and tradition. We predict it will become a more common part of the estate planning process
Transparency has become a powerful discussion point in recent years. A lack of corporate financial transparency has arguably been the cause of many modern major financial crises and corporate bankruptcies. Whether you agree with this view or not, transparency is a hot-button issue, both socially and politically. Lack of transparency
For many, borders between home and foreign jurisdictions increasingly matter less and are easily overlooked when acquiring new assets, like a second home in another country and bank accounts and other financial assets. Updating your estate planning to reflect the new status quo of foreign asset ownership, however, doesn’t always
One aspect of estate planning which is often not considered is how executors, trustees and attorneys should be compensated. Yet compensation claims are a frequent matter of contention and resentment, create disputes between executors, trustees, attorneys and beneficiaries, and can even result in litigation. Common scenarios include the executor, trustee
If you’ve been following the recent Federal Budget changes to testamentary trust taxation, the proposed (but now defeated) Ontario Budget with its increased taxes on higher-income earners, tobacco and airplane fuel, and the recent changes to the Ontario Estate Administration Tax Act (see my December, 2012 blog “The New Ontario
Canadians are increasingly mobile within Canada. Employees are transferred and move with their families to another province, couples decide to retire in a province with a more moderate climate, or seniors decide to move to be closer to their children and grandchildren. But in changing jobs, lifestyle and family connections,
An estimated 85% of North Americans use online financial tools such as financial accounts, bill payments and digital currency, according to a 2012 BMO Wealth Institute survey. In 2011, Canadians surveyed valued their digital assets including entertainment downloads, personal records and career information at approximately $47,000 each, as reported in
Many of you have no doubt read a summary or highlights of the 2014 Federal Budget and noted the proposal to eliminate graduated income tax rates for testamentary trusts. Rather than thinking that testamentary trust planning is dead (no pun intended), in our view there are plenty of reasons to
One of the hallmarks of the English common law is the notion of testamentary freedom–that each of us is free to pass our property on death as we wish, and to whom we wish, and that we can be as foolish, eccentric or capricious as we choose to be, subject
You may know that having a beneficiary designation for your life insurance policies or registered retirement plans (RSPs) is a good idea, including in order to avoid Ontario estate administration tax (previously probate fees) on the value of assets which would otherwise pass through your estate (see our Client Advisory
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