Author: Stephanie Battista

A Continuing Power of Attorney for Property and a Power of Attorney for Personal Care are simple but powerful documents. In short, a Power of Attorney is a document in which the grantor appoints another person – the attorney – the power to act on the grantor’s behalf including in

Heading into a new year is always a great time to think about what you need to accomplish over the next 12 months. Preparing or updating your estate plan is usually high on that list. But in some cases, you may not be as concerned with your estate plan as

As clients are becoming more and more mobile, it is common to have assets all over the world which leads to multi-jurisdictional estate administration on the mobile client’s death or incapacity. There are international treaties that try to make things easier and connect all these jurisdictions. One of these international

In the world of estate planning, a genie is not the only one who could potentially grant you a wish: your trustee may also be able to do this with the help of a letter of wishes. A letter of wishes is a non-binding document that sets out suggestions to

Jointly held assets are a popular estate planning tool because of how simple they appear. Adding a child on title to the house seems like a quick way to avoid paying probate taxes, or adding them as a joint owner on a bank account could be a convenient way to

Your will can sometimes be seen as your final words to your loved ones. You may want to set out specific gifts to the people who you cherish most or who have helped you out during your lifetime. But as in life, you need to make sure you can actually

When building a life together, one of the more important decisions for married spouses or common-law partners is how to deal with their respective assets and whether or not some or most should be combined. Holding assets jointly with your spouse or partner, particularly in less complex estates, is a

Avoid Losing, Misplacing, or Accidentally Discarding a Will As important as having a Will in place that clearly outlines your wishes and intentions after your death is, it ultimately won’t matter if the Will cannot be located on your death. Surprisingly, keeping a Will in a safe and secure spot

This past summer, history was made at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when Canadian soccer player, Quinn, became the first openly transgendered and non-binary athlete to not only compete at the Olympics, but to also win an Olympic medal (which happened to be gold, by the way!). Quinn’s journey to the

In previous blogs, “Avoiding Executor Dissent” and “Key Considerations in Choosing your Executors,” we have stressed the importance of choosing the right executor and provided some considerations for appointing executors. Being an executor is not easy. Time and time again, we see executors who are not only surprised by their appointment