our 10th year
blog anniversary
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
It is now the height of summer, and a good time to take a breath and reflect a bit before the hurly burly of the fall descends upon us. And so, I turn to the topic of the importance of integrity in providing trust and estate advice. What do we
“Why do I need a will?” – a question we hear from many clients new to estate planning. It is usually followed up by a list of reasons why clients think they don’t need a will, which can range from believing they are too young and don’t have anything of
If not carefully planned for, the amount of compensation paid to the executor(s) for administering an estate or to the trustee(s) for administering any ongoing trusts (collectively referred to as the “trustees”) has the potential to become a contentious issue. In the scope of estate planning, compensation must be part
What are some of the trips and traps to be aware of from an estate planning viewpoint if you are a Canadian, but you have assets or other connections south of the border? In this blog, I will give a few concrete examples drawn from my experience of the problems
One of the most common questions our clients ask is whether they can sign their Wills and Powers of Attorney with an electronic signature. Our lives are getting busier, our goal of reducing paper waste is more focused, and clients are understandably questioning the historically strict formalities of executing estate
When major life events occur, it is important to consider your estate planning and what updates and changes must be done. In no circumstances is this more true than when a person gets married, separated or divorced. Each of these life events affects a person’s estate plan in different ways.
A few weeks ago, Google reported an increase in the number of searches on how to apply for Canadian residency and citizenship. Surprisingly, these numbers may not just be from our friends south of the border: in 2019, Canada welcomed over 284,000 people worldwide. This statistic is not unique to
Last November 2019, I had the opportunity to organize a session and speak at the STEP Spotlight Conference in London, U.K., along with colleagues from several countries, including Brazil, U.S., Belgium, France, and the U.K. We discussed how our different countries tax on death and how double or even triple
In my blog distributed to you on April 7, 2020, I told readers to stay tuned as hundreds of years of strict formalities might soon change due to Covid-19. But little did I know that these changes would come later that very day in two jurisdictions: my home province of Ontario