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Celebrating

our 10th year
blog anniversary

Tag: Thought leadership

The Movement to Transparency and the Erosion of Privacy

We live in a world in which personal privacy is under siege, or perhaps simply not valued as much by many as it was by prior generations. As we reach the end of 2018, this year has seen a number of scandals involving significant data breaches and cyber hacking involving

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Simplicity vs. Oversimplicity in Estate Planning

Often people who are doing their estate planning have one overriding goal in mind: keep it simple. The so-called “KISS” principle is attractive, and may be appropriate for some. But for many, simplicity can be oversimplicity. Instead of being cost-efficient in the long term and allowing a streamlined estate administration

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Embracing Change – A Postscript

The STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) Global Congress held in Vancouver in September, 2018, attracted delegates from over 37 countries and six continents. It was a truly global think tank in which we explored, probed, deconstructed and debated some of the most important changes that are, or will

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Powers of Attorney: Jurisdictional Challenges

A power of attorney (“POA”) is a legal document in which one person, sometimes termed the “grantor”, appoints another person – the attorney – to make decisions and act on the grantor’s behalf. In Canada, POAs are governed by provincial and territorial laws. Two types of POAs are used in

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The Cautionary Tale of Mutual Wills

Estate planning deals with often complex family situations, including the needs of blended families with complicated personal relationships. The goal of estate planning is to ensure your intentions for your loved ones are carried out. There are several ways to address blended family and second marriage situations so that the

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Embracing Change

We all sense the increasing speed of change that permeates all aspects of our everyday lives. Whether it’s technology, political or economic events, or even the weather with climate change, the constant is change itself. And with constant change comes the need to adapt to it, or even better –

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2018 Update on the UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

December 10, 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was a milestone in 1948 for protecting human rights. Surprisingly, older persons are not yet expressly identified as a protected group under international human rights laws. In acknowledgment of the Declaration, the UN International Day

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Children, Equality and Inheritance: Your Final Legacy

On May 4, 2018, we celebrate our firm’s 20th anniversary. I thought it would be fitting as well as helpful to reflect on one of the most challenging questions in family succession: whether children should be treated equally. Being a trust and estate lawyer now for over thirty-five years has

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The Rule Against Perpetuities: A Dying Relic 

The Rule Against Perpetuities (the “Rule”) is an old and complex legal rule that aims to prevent the delay of vesting of many types of transferred property interests beyond the “Perpetuities Period” and is the bane of many lawyers who draft wills and trusts. A property interest vests when it

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