Author: Susannah Roth

Oh, did you think we were done with real estate and taxes for a while? Sorry to disappoint. Our last blog, “Selling Sunset: Real Estate Taxes Property Owners in Canada Must Know About,” discussed some new taxes and tax filings involving real estate in Ontario. Today we’d like to remind

Digital assets, simply put, are anything stored digitally which has value, either financial, sentimental or otherwise, as further described below. These days, keeping track of your digital assets (login emails and passwords) is an important part of estate planning. Keeping accurate records of your digital assets makes your estate and

In January of this year, my blog “New Year, New Estate Laws Are Here,” summarized the substantive changes to Ontario estate and trust law which came into effect on January 1, 2022. These changes were significant, and we expected significant litigation to go along with them. So far, this abundance

In our previous blog, “New Trust Reporting and Disclosure Rules,” we wrote about the new Canadian trust reporting and disclosure rules which were originally to come into effect in 2021. Updated draft legislation was released by the Department of Finance on August 9, 2022, and the legislation is now expected

It is trite, but perhaps worth repeating that for many people, one of their primary estate planning goals is to take care of their spouse after their death. This is particularly the case if most of the couple’s assets are held by one spouse or where the spouses are in

Overused quote alert! “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The above statement by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Jean-Baptiste LeRoy in 1789 is often abbreviated, but the

One of my late husband’s favourite sayings, along with putting “a rod in pickle for your own back” (the relevance of this one will become clear later in this blog, but for a history of this saying, see The Phrase Finder and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary), was “start out how you

One of the most important decisions to make in planning your Will is choosing your executor and trustee (referred to as an estate trustee). Who should act, whether you should have two or more act jointly, and who to appoint as the alternate(s) should your first choice be unable or

There have been a lot of great songs written about change. Like a broken heart, it’s a universal theme, and an essential part of our human experience. One of my favourites is “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. (Fun fact – this was the first music video to

We all know that divorce rates are high, and common law relationships are increasingly, well, common. You may not know that a very high percentage of divorced individuals will eventually remarry, and more than one in four Canadians who are in a spousal relationship are in their second or subsequent