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Toronto Ontario Estate Law Blog
Wills and Estates 101: Keeping Your Legal Terms Straight – Part 2
Back in 2023, my colleague, Marly Peikes, wrote a blog demystifying some common legal terms used in Ontario estate and trust planning. While an entire textbook could be filled with estate-related legal jargon, for now, we want to provide our readers with greater clarity on even more commonly used terms
Powers of Appointment: How They Work and Their Benefits
What is a Power of Appointment? A power of appointment is a valuable estate planning tool, which, broadly speaking, is a power that is frequently conferred on a person, including an executor, and the trustee and/or beneficiary of a testamentary or inter vivos trust (the “donee”), in relation to the
3 Good Housekeeping Tips for Your Will and Supporting Documents
Congratulations—you’ve started the year by accomplishing an important goal: you’ve signed your Will! You feel good knowing you’ve chosen a trusted executor, protected your hard-earned assets for your children, and provided for the people you care about most. But before you file it away and move on, there are a
Estate Tax Reform and the Impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Canadians
In our blog just under a year ago of January 29, 2025, we speculated on what to expect for U.S. estate tax under a second Trump administration. With the decrease to about half the current amount of the lifetime exclusion amount set to occur on January 1, 2026 unless new
Dependant’s Relief Claims: A Tug-of-War between Testamentary Freedom and Familial Obligation
Testamentary freedom is one of the hallmarks of Ontario’s estate planning regime. It gives individuals, when drafting and executing their wills and estate plans, the ability to distribute their assets in the manner that they see fit. However, this power is not absolute. A number of legislative restrictions exist on
Continuing Powers of Attorney for Property – Do’s and Don’ts
A continuing power of attorney for property is an estate planning tool that enables a person (i.e., the attorney) to step into the shoes of the grantor when the grantor becomes mentally incapable and to do everything the grantor could lawfully do, except make a will. An attorney for property
Revocation Miscalculations – Beneficiary Designations Edition
My blog of July 8, 2025 touched on a few cases where the courts had to step in because beneficiary designations for registered accounts weren’t drafted or updated properly. Case-law suggests that revoking one’s beneficiary designations may also require court intervention if not properly considered by the drafting lawyer. The
The Ariel Problem: I Lost My Voice and I Want It Back
Some may recall the news of May 2024 that actress Scarlett Johansson was embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI because the company released a voice for its ChatGPT assistant, “Sky,” which sounded strangely similar to her own. Ms. Johansson had previously declined an offer to voice the AI, and
You Decide: Advance Requests and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)
The role of the estate planning lawyer has greatly expanded over the last three decades with the advent in the 1990s in Ontario of modern legislation dealing with substitute decision-making, including powers of attorney for property and for personal care; see our updated Advisory on this. Part of the planning
Legal vs. Beneficial Ownership: What it Means for Your Estate Planning
The amount of careful analysis and due diligence that good individualized estate planning requires cannot be overstated. Importantly, this process involves determining all the assets a testator has an interest in, how such interest is held, and finally how they would like to dispose of or pass on such interest(s)
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