our 10th year
blog anniversary
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
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
The Ontario Family Law Act (FLA) determines the division of property between spouses on marriage breakdown. But what happens when a spouse is a beneficiary of a discretionary trust? By way of background, the FLA requires each spouse on marriage breakdown to value his or her “net family property” (NFP).
With the advent on January 1, 2016 of the new income tax rules eliminating graduated income tax rates and imposing tax at the top marginal tax rate for testamentary trusts (trusts set up in Wills), some people may be of the view that using trust-planned Wills is far less attractive
One of the perceived disadvantages to using a trust in estate planning is that restrictions on trustees’ investment decision-making under trust law will result in lower investment returns. In particular, this is a concern where a trust has an income beneficiary to whom income is paid, usually for his or
It’s common knowledge that we are at the leading edge of an avalanche of wealth transfer. Baby boomers in increasing numbers are heading into their retirement years and beyond. The succession of capital that will occur is unprecedented. In the recent past, we’ve also seen higher average annual divorce rates
Updating your estate plan on separation and divorce in a timely manner is critical in order to avoid unintended results, possible later disputes, and even litigation. The following highlights some of the most common concerns, as well as precautions to take. Wills Generally, in Ontario the Succession Law Reform Act
Discretionary trusts are common estate planning tools used for a variety of reasons such as tax minimization and general wealth protection, including protection on matrimonial breakdown and from creditors. These trusts are often used in an estate freeze where shares in privately-held corporations are “frozen” to defer capital gains liability
Joint ownership of property is a common estate planning tool. Where property is owned jointly with a right of survivorship (as opposed to, for example, as tenants in common), the property passes in the normal course to the surviving joint owner on the other owner’s death. In these circumstances, the
Many of you have no doubt read a summary or highlights of the 2014 Federal Budget and noted the proposal to eliminate graduated income tax rates for testamentary trusts. Rather than thinking that testamentary trust planning is dead (no pun intended), in our view there are plenty of reasons to