Exceptional solutions. Your needs are as unique as you.

Search
Close this search box.

Blog

OSullivan-Estate-Lawyers-LLP-logo

Celebrating

our 10th year
blog anniversary

Category: Estate Planning

The Two Certainties: Death and (Foreign) Taxes

A failure to take into account taxes on death can often defeat an estate plan. It can result in a smaller estate being available for distribution and it can also result in some beneficiaries bearing a disproportionate amount of the estate’s tax burden. While most estate plans take into account

Read More »

Filtering Out the Noise in Your Estate Planning

You’ve heard it before: there’s a lot of information out there these days. Thousands of hours of Youtube content are uploaded every day. Wikipedia entries are updated every minute. Blogs are written, websites created and refreshed. You can find information, accurate or not, on just about any subject, no matter

Read More »

One Key Ingredient for a Successful Estate Plan: Proper Asset Alignment

In our August 2015 post entitled “Keeping Your Estate Plan Healthy with Periodic Check-Ups” we raised the potentially problematic reality that your estate plan may only be truly up-to-date the day you sign your estate planning documents. We put estate plans in place to ensure that our wishes, intentions and goals

Read More »

The Changing Face of Global Tax Transparency

High net worth individuals have been criticized (especially during election years) for not paying their fair share of taxes. These individuals often take advantage of legitimate tax planning strategies to lower their taxes. A portion, though, utilize evasive strategies that rely on a general lack of tax transparency between countries

Read More »

Using Trusts: The Future is Bright

On January 1st, several new income tax rules for trusts and estates came into effect. An overview of these significant changes are discussed in our Special Advisory. While we understand that there is an ongoing dialogue between the Federal Ministry of Finance and several professional organizations regarding possible changes to

Read More »

Family Meetings: An Underutilized Tool

In our August 18, 2015 post we raised the idea of regular check-ups for your estate plan in order to keep it current. Periodic reviews help to keep you refreshed about the details of your estate plan so that it can be maintained and changed when necessary–ensuring it will carry

Read More »

Testamentary Freedom: The Right to Disinherit a Beneficiary

Individuals in Ontario are free to pass their property on death as they wish, subject to certain legal limitations. This ability is often referred to as testamentary freedom and is a hallmark of English common law. Over the years, testamentary freedom has lost ground to other public policy objectives, such

Read More »

Confidentiality Matters: Thoughts on Death and Privacy

Privacy and the protection of personal data are a major concern in modern society. Complicated privacy legislation exists in many jurisdictions with the objective of protecting personal information by imposing multiple safeguards, some of which can be frustrating to deal with. With the increasing stores of digital information, we also

Read More »