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Estate Planning

Toronto Estate Law Blog

Provided by Hull & Hull.

Post Frequency: 10.9/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 08:48:24

Illustrating the Use of Technology - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #163

Posted on May 05, 2009
Listen to Illustrating the Use of Technology This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Ian and Suzana illustrate the use of technology. They discuss the tools they use, knowledge management within their firm and how technology has made things much more accessible for current lawyers and law students...

Q + A with Rodney Hull - Hull on Estates Episode 161

Posted on May 05, 2009
Listen to Q + A with Rodney Hull This week on Hull on Estates Jonathan Morse interviews Rodney Hull about his career as a lawyer. He discusses how he got started in estate litigation, how Hull and Hull was founded, how the practice of estate litigation has changed and the effect of electronic means of communicating on the practice of law...

For a Trustee, What Compensation is the Right Compensation?

Posted on May 04, 2009
The recent decision of Pachaluck Estate v. DiFebo is a useful illustration of when the court is willing to reduce compensation awarded to the trustee for the administration of a simple estate. The main assets of the estate were the deceased's condominium and several bank accounts...

The Unique Characteristics of the Estate Retainer - Hull on Estates #160

Posted on May 03, 2009
Listen to The Unique Characteristics of the Estate Retainer This week on Hull on Estates, Ian Hull and Suzana Popvic-Montag discuss the question of retainers. This topic comes from a seminar at the Law Society of Upper Canada where they had several practitioners in different areas come and talk about their retainers...

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The birth of the biological single parent?

Posted on May 01, 2009
I couldn't help but do a double-take when I came across an interesting article in the Globe and Mail by Anne McIlroy with the above-captioned title. Ms. McIllroy comments on the latest advances in stem-cell research, which indicate that it may be possible for someone to become a biological single parent - the source of both the egg and the sperm! How it seems to work is that adult skin cells can be turned into stem cells, and once they have been reprogrammed, these cells can be turned into many of the specialized cells that make up the human body...

The Right to Examine Incapable Persons and Minors?

Posted on April 30, 2009
You would expect that a minor or a party to a proceeding who is declared mentally incapable to manage his/her property and/or personal care (under sections 6 and 45 of the Substitute Decisions Act) would not be able to or required to participate in the litigation...

Varying or Terminating Trusts

Posted on April 29, 2009
Trusts can be varied or terminated prematurely in two ways: (1) through the operation of the rule in Saunders v. Vautier; and (2) under the powers of the court given by way of the Variation of Trusts Act. There is also potentially a third method - by a trustee's exercise of his absolute discretionary power given by the trust document...

Removing an Attorney for Property

Posted on April 28, 2009
Removing an attorney for property is notoriously difficult. A person should only seek to remove an attorney for property when clear and compelling evidence presents itself. Where you feel the circumstances necessitate the commencement of a removal application, I recommend that you consider the following practical and strategic evidence-gathering steps, which may add teeth to your claim: ...

Issues that Arise with an Incapable Spouse - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #162

Posted on April 28, 2009
Listen to Issues the Arise with an Incapable Spouse This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana pick up on the last couple points on the Canadian Conference on Elder Law put on by the Canadian Bar Association conference in Kingston, Ontario on June 9, 2009...

The Curious Case of the Rogue Remains

Posted on April 27, 2009
A trip through the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, a ride on the Maid of the Mist, catching a flick at the IMAX Theatre, posing for goofy pictures at Louis Tussaud's Waxworks. Oooh – don't forget the big breakfast at HoJo's after the late night at the Casino...

Cottage Plans: An upside to the Economy?

Posted on April 24, 2009
It's Friday in late April. The May long weekend and all that cottage fuss is just around the corner. (I like the cottage, but understandably a lot of people choose the backyard.) In Ontario, we do not have inheritance tax like they do elsewhere, including the United Kingdom...

Risk Management: Lenders Beware

Posted on April 23, 2009
On Tuesday I blogged about mortgage fraud and suggested that financial institutions may be at greater risk because of the B.C. Court of Appeal decision: Re Oehlerking Estate, 2009 BCCA 138. Why would they be at increased risk? In the B.C. case, the Judge ordered that the fraudster's title be set aside and that a new title be issued in the name of the plaintiff executrix...

A Will Challenge under the Indian Act

Posted on April 22, 2009
In keeping with yesterday's blog on a British Columbia real estate matter, today I focus on another BC case - Albas v. Gabriel 2009 BCSC 198 - that involves the Indian Act, a federal statute. For a quick recap of the interplay between provincial and federal jurisdiction regarding estate matters and First Nations people living on reserves, I refer to David Smith's 2007 blog: The Administration of Estates under the Indian Act...

Henson Trusts - Hull on Estates #159

Posted on April 22, 2009
Listen to Henson Trusts This week on Hull on Estates, Rick Bickhram and Sarah Fitzpatrick discuss Henson trusts (also called absolute discretionary trusts). They consider the use of such trusts to benefit disabled persons, and how best to protect the assets (typically an inheritance) as well as the right to collect government benefits and assistance...

Social Media and the Canadian Conference on Elder Law - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #161

Posted on April 22, 2009
Listen to Social Media and the Canadian Conference on Elder Law This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana discuss the idea of knowing what is going on around us in social media. They mention the Canadian Conference on Elder Law put on by the Canadian Bar Association conference in Kingston, Ontario on June 9, 2009...

Developments in Mortgage Fraud

Posted on April 21, 2009
Often in the context of estate matters issues arise around real estate because it is often one of the largest assets comprising an estate. A recent decision in British Columbia is a case in point. Last week the BC Court of Appeal overturned a lower Court decision that found a defrauded financial institution was to be reimbursed by the unsuspecting widow whose home had been fraudulently mortgaged...

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault: The Ultimate Insurance Policy

Posted on April 20, 2009
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), also known as the Doomsday Vault, is a secure seedbank located on a Norwegian island far within the Arctic Circle. The purpose of the SGSV is ‘to provide insurance against both incremental and catastrophic loss of crop diversity held in traditional seed banks around the world...

Crouching Billionaire Nina Wang, Hidden Feng Shui Master

Posted on April 17, 2009
As we all know, Asia's richest woman Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, died on April 3, 2007 with an estate guesstimated at HK$100 billion (a paltry US$12.9b or a piddling $15,527,045,650.09 CAD up here in still-snowing Canada), though the developer was worth maybe as low as US$4...

Motions in Estates Litigation: Longer Than You Think

Posted on April 16, 2009
Estates litigation is full of wonderful little procedural differences from general civil litigation. The most basic differences are found in Rules 74 and 75 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. Take for example motions. One would think a motion is fairly straightforward, but...

The Millionaire, His Mistress, His Will & the ex-Governor

Posted on April 15, 2009
A current Georgia case vividly illustrates the legal, emotional and moral complexity often involved in estates litigation. According to the reports, Harvey Strother died at age 78, having succumbed to progressively severe alcoholism brought on by the tragic death of his daughter at age 23...

Can a Net Family Property Equalization election set aside an estate freeze?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Howard J. Feldman made a presentation on the circumstances where a net family property ("NFP") equalization can set aside an estate feeze. He also discussed structuring the estate freeze transaction to qualify as an exclusion from the transferee child's NFP...

The Freezing of the Assets - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #160

Posted on April 14, 2009
Listen to The Freezing of the Assets This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Ian and Suzana discuss what the freezing of the assets step means and what the typical approach is for dealing with situations in which this step needs to be taken...

The Role of the Office of the Public Guardian Trustee - Hull on Estates #158

Posted on April 14, 2009
Listen to The Role of the Office of the Public Guardian Trustee This week on Hull on Estates, Diane Vieira and Bianca La Neve discuss the role of the Office of the Public Guardian Trustee (PGT) in passings of accounts. They talk about the role of this government body, whose job it is to protect the interests of incapable persons, charities and absentees...

Ouch! It hurts...

Posted on April 13, 2009
...but every recession has lucky people too. To save you hours of watching cable news and reading, here's a snapshot of good news and bad news on the legal profession in Canada and around the Common Law world: IN THE CROSS-HAIRS: with companies trying to pare their legal budgets between 6% and 35%, the #1 target for general counsels is...

Life Insurance as Property: Timing is everything

Posted on April 09, 2009
For my final blog of this week, I thought I would give further consideration to the unique legal issues arising out of life insurance beneficiary designations. Because of the increasing complexity of insurance structures, it is not always easy to determine what "property" is held by a policyholder at the time of his death...

Insurance Trusts and Estate Administration Tax

Posted on April 08, 2009
As a segue from yesterday's blog (which considered the issue of beneficiary designations of life insurance policies), today's blog considers issues arising from the characterization of life insurance proceeds as trust assets in the context of an overall estate plan...

Correcting Beneficiary Designations

Posted on April 07, 2009
Declarations of beneficiaries of Life Insurance policies are sometimes thought to be 'unassailable.' However, where a deceased's first spouse is unexpectedly the named beneficiary of a life insurance policy owned by the deceased, the second spouse may have recourse to various legal remedies in an attempt to remedy what is argued to be an unjust situation...

Administration Bonds - Hull on Estates #157

Posted on April 07, 2009
Listen to Administration Bonds This week on Hull on Estates, Megan Connolly and Paul Trudelle discuss administration bonds; what they are, when they are required, why they are required and dispensing with the administration bond in certain cases. In Particular they refer to the Henderson decision, a recent decision out of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that deals with the issue of dispensing with an administration bond and what is required...

What Do We Expect From Our Clients? - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #159

Posted on April 07, 2009
Listen to What Do We Expect From Our Clients? This week on Hull and Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana discuss what we expect and what we can expect from clients. This topic was prompted by the recent changes by the Law Society to the bylaws in terms of what to ask clients...

The Third Man Factor

Posted on April 06, 2009
Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you - T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922 I just finished reading a fascinating book authored by John Geiger called The Third Man Factor: The Secret to Survival in Extreme Environments...

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