Overview
Michael’s practice focuses on estate planning, estate administration, and matters directly related to these areas of the law.
His experience includes the resolution of complex issues in estate administration with cross-border, multijurisdictional, and litigious aspects. Michael regularly advises executors, trustees, attorneys, and guardians on their duties and obligations.
He has also worked with a variety of entrepreneur and family office clients, and their professional advisors, to develop tailored estate plans with well-considered estate strategies to achieve each client’s unique family succession needs.
In effecting various estate plans, Michael has drafted wills, powers of attorney, trusts, and domestic contracts, with an emphasis on minimization of income tax and estate administration tax (probate fees).
Michael is currently completing the Diploma Program of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Canada.
Prior to joining O’Sullivan Estate Lawyers LLP, Michael was an associate at a mid-sized regional law firm where he specialized in wills, estates, and trusts.
Michael is a former President of the Chess Federation of Canada and, in his spare time, enjoys both playing the royal game and serving as an International Arbiter in events sanctioned by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). In 2015, he was recognized with an Ontario Volunteer Service Award for 15 years of service to the Ontario Chess Association. More recently, he was recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow by The Rotary Foundation.
Professional Activities
- Member, Ontario Bar Association
- Member, Canadian Bar Association
- Associate, Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Canada
- Secretary, York Region Law Association
- Founding President, Estate Planning Council of York Region
- Tutor (Solicitors’ Exam – Trusts and Estates), Law Society of Ontario
- President-Elect, Rotary Club of Markham-Unionville
Presentations
Upcoming
- March 27, 2024
The O’Sullivan Team will present a 1-hour webinar, “It’s Complicated: Estate Planning and Administration for the Modern Family,” through London, U.K.-based legal publisher Mondaq.This webinar will assist in identifying key issues advisers and their clients need to know about including: cultural intelligence and multijurisdictional expertise; challenges of blended families; evolving definitions of “parent,” “child,” “issue,” and “spouse”; obstacles and conflicts when wills and trusts cross borders; and gender identity and fluidity and its impact on estate planning and drafting.
Case studies will be used to illustrate how these problems and issues arise and solutions to deal with them.
Time: 11 a.m. to 12 noon EST / 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. UTC
Registration is complimentary; click here.
Recent
- Michael spoke on “The Interplay of Domestic Contracts and Family Law with Estate Planning” at the Southwestern Ontario Chapter of STEP Canada, hosted virtually on May 25, 2021.
Publications
2024
- LAW360, Wills, Trusts & Estates. “Four important 2023 court of appeal estate decisions, and ‘Case of the Year’” on February 15, 2024. This article was originally published by LAW360, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.
- LAW360, Wills, Trusts & Estates. “Trustee discretion: Where absolute does not mean unfettered” on January 19, 2024. This article was originally published by LAW360, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.