our 10th year
blog anniversary
If you intend to make, or have already made, charitable gifts in your will, there is an interesting aspect of charitable giving that you may not have considered. What happens if the charity you named no longer exists, cannot receive the gift, or circumstances have changed such that your gift
This is a loaded question. The short answer is: it depends. If you’re interested in the long answer, keep reading. Why is this question so complicated? We have the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Pecore v Pecore (2007 SCC 17 (CanLII)) and the caselaw that follows it to thank. In
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
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
In June 2025, my colleague, Michael G. von Keitz, wrote a blog titled ‘1,270 Days Later: The Sequel to Substantial Compliance in Ontario’. His blog reviewed a trio of cases (Salmon v Rombough, 2024 ONSC 1186, O’Neill Estate, 2024 ONSC 2228, and Urback v Canadian Cancer Society et al., 2025
In Ontario, individuals may designate beneficiaries for their registered accounts—such as TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs, and FHSAs (see Part III of the Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 (SLRA)). This designation ensures that, upon the account holder’s death, the proceeds are paid directly to the named beneficiary, thereby bypassing