our 10th year
blog anniversary
It is becoming more and more the “norm” in many areas of day-to-day life that in lieu of an original paper copy of a document being given to us during some form of transaction or interaction, the document is instead created and sent to us digitally. Consider for example car
A well drafted will is not worth the (stack of) paper it is written on if it fails to achieve the client’s objectives. Those objectives are often defeated where an estate plan is not properly designed, implemented, or maintained. Under the traditional approach to estate planning, the lawyer typically designs
As of today, according to the Gregorian calendar, we are just over one month away from ringing in the New Year. If you are already contemplating your New Year’s resolution, we thought we would help out in this blog post by providing you with a shortlist of “thinking points” for
There are many things that we think about and plan for when we move–furniture, movers, schools, utilities… I could go on and on. There are even more things that we plan for when we move to another jurisdiction-language, taxes, visas, driving laws… and so it goes. But one thing you
A “protector” is a person who is given special rights and powers under a will or a trust instrument to participate in the administration of an estate or a trust. Protectors generally provide an oversight function–they ensure the trustees are administering the trust in accordance with the testator’s or settlor’s
Perhaps I should refrain from re-stating the obvious, but it bears repeating–we live in an increasingly global and mobile society, where people move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with relative ease. And when we’re not picking up and moving residences, we’re travelling to foreign destinations and buying property, opening bank accounts
Sometimes the law leads in pushing societal change forward, but often it lags far behind, particularly in the face of scientific innovation and rapid technological change. Over the past forty years or so, even how we define family has been subject to fundamental change, and in the future it will
In addition to purchasing a first home, the birth of a child is another momentous life event that often spurs people to prepare a will. Expecting parents and parents of young children are usually keen to put wills in place in order to ensure that if something happens to them,
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