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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

A Dynamite Legacy

Posted on October 07, 2008
I recently blogged on the lasting legacy of Cecil Rhodes. Along the same lines, the life of Alfred Nobel is worth considering. Like most “great men”, Nobel was a bundle of contradictions. He was a successful Swedish business who is best remembered for inventing dynamite...

Piszczek v. Zurawska - Hull on Estates #131

Posted on October 07, 2008
Listen to Piszczek v. Zurawska This week on Hull on Estates, Christopher Graham and Paul Trudelle discuss the recent decision in the case of Piszczek v. Zurawska that demonstrates the application of a resulting trust of joint accounts. Comments? Send us an email at hull...

Compensation & Personal Care Guardians

Posted on October 06, 2008
Welcome to my week of blogs. The Substitute Decisions Act is silent when it comes to the issue of compensation for personal care guardians. Section 40 of the SDA addresses compensation for property guardians, but there is no corresponding provision for personal care guardians (though regard can be had to section 68(4) of the SDA)...

Elder Law: A Growing Practice Area

Posted on October 03, 2008
The focus on Canada’s aging population, and the special needs of seniors, is becoming recognized in legal circles as a growing practice specialty: elder law. Elder law lawyers have a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted practice that ranges from estates, to health law, to real estate...

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Limitation Period Not a Sword

Posted on October 02, 2008
A recent decision from British Columbia, Desbiens v. Bernacki, 2008 BCSC 696 is a good reminder that a limitation period is a shield, not a sword. In Desbiens, the deceased had four children from a first marriage. After his first wife left him, he placed three of his children in foster care; one child was adopted...

Right to Choose Your Final Resting Place

Posted on October 01, 2008
A recent Toronto Life magazine article, “The New Death Etiquette” examines mourning in the 21st century. The new death etiquette includes multicultural hybrid funerals and intricate grieving rituals. Many funerals now are elaborate functions designed to reflect the individual personality of the deceased person...

Will Challenge Litigation - Part 7 - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning

Posted on September 30, 2008
Listen to Will Challenge Litigation - Part 7 This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on the Will Challenge Process, step by step. They discuss fraud as one of the most serious ways in which a will can be challenged...

Identifying a Common Law Spouse

Posted on September 30, 2008
Common law spouses are not included in Part II of Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act, which governs intestate succession (dying without a valid Will). In British Columbia, unlike Ontario, intestate laws now provide the same rights to common law spouses as to married spouses, if the couple lived together in a marriage-like relationship for a period of at least two years before the death of one of them...

A Review of Dependant Support Claims - Hull on Estates #130

Posted on September 30, 2008
Listen to A Review of Dependant Support Claims This week on Hull on Estates, David Smith and Jonathan Morse review some of the recent podcasts and hone in on some of the evidentiary requirements of a common-law spousal relationship as it relates to dependant support claims under the Succession Law Reform Act...

Millionaire Widow Seeks Support

Posted on September 29, 2008
A recent Ontario decision, MacDougall v. MacDougall Estate [2008] O.J. No. 2930 (S.J.C.), dealt with the issue of adequate provision for proper support under Part V of the Succession Law Reform Act (“SLRA”). The deceased died in 2004...

Challenging A Will Before Death

Posted on September 26, 2008
It has commonly been assumed that a will challenge cannot proceed prior to the death of the testator. The will speaks only upon the death of the testator, and a testator enjoys testamentary freedom to revise or otherwise revoke the will at any time prior to death, or to deal freely with his or her assets...

Payment of Legal Fees

Posted on September 25, 2008
Collection of legal fees can be an ongoing issue for lawyers. It is certainly an issue for a Chicago lawyer, who faces a 15 month suspension arising out of matters relating to the payment of his fees. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the lawyer provided legal services to a client and members of her family on various matters...

MORE ON MUTUAL WILLS

Posted on September 24, 2008
At the October 2007 Hull and Hull Breakfast Seminar, I spoke on the concept of “Mutual Wills”. (See my paper, here.) In a recent decision out of Alberta, the Court again addressed the issue of mutual wills. In Powell v. Glover, [2008] A...

Fiduciary Accounting - Hull on Estates #129

Posted on September 23, 2008
Listen to Fiduciary Accounting This week on Hull on Estates, Ian Hull and Suzana Popovic-Montag discuss fiduciary accounting. Who is a fiduciary and what is a fiduciary's duty to account? They cite several cases that illustrate fiduciary accounting rules: Re Taerk, [1975] O...

Will Challenge Litigation - Part 6 - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning

Posted on September 23, 2008
Or, listen to Will Challenge Litigation - Part 6 by clicking here. This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on the Will Challenge Process, step by step. They pick up where they left off last week by addressing undue influence...

COMING SOON TO AN ORDER GIVING DIRECTIONS NEAR YOU

Posted on September 23, 2008
While I was in Court in Toronto on Friday, Mr. Justice Brown advised the court room in general that with respect to most Orders Giving Directions granted by him (and possibly other judges on the Estates List), the Order Giving Directions will include a Schedule that provides that the Applicant is to file with the Estates Office a tabbed, three ring, red 1” binder labelled “Endorsements/Orders Brief”, which is to be maintained as part of the record of the proceeding...

STAMP = SIGNATURE?

Posted on September 22, 2008
Does the act of a paraplegic testator in stamping his will with a stamp bearing his name constitute the act of signing the will within the meaning of section 4(1)(a) of the Succession Law Reform Act (“SLRA”)? That was the question that was posed to the Honourable Justice D...

Prosper and Live Long

Posted on September 19, 2008
Comparisons of life expectancy across different regions of Canada suggest that Southern, Urban dwellers in mid-size cities tend to live the longest. Northern groups, particularly those with large aboriginal segments, tend to face a much grimmer situation, according to this 2000 article,living approximately 4 years less on average...

Sharia and the Common Law

Posted on September 18, 2008
The UK, home of the Common Law, seems willing to experiment with alternatives under certain conditions. Elements of Sharia law are apparently making inroads into some areas, most notably family law and estate law. In early 2008, the Archbishop of the Church of England suggested that the incorporation of elements of Islamic law into the English polity was unavoidable, causing quite a stir before being echoed by a top judge...

Death: Wrongful but not actionable (in Ontario)

Posted on September 17, 2008
Wrongful death does not give rise to a claim under Ontario law. Section 38(1) of Ontario’s Trustee Act states in part that “if death results from such injuries no damages shall be allowed for the death or for the loss of the expectation of life”...

Will Challenge Litigation - Part 5 - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning

Posted on September 16, 2008
Or, listen to the audio version of Will Challenge Litigation - Part 5 This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on the Will Challenge Process, step by step. They continue to discuss the process of will challenges in closer detail...

Attorneyship Issues - Hull on Estates Podcast #128

Posted on September 16, 2008
Listen to Attorneyship Issues Natalia Angelini and Chris Graham discuss attorneyship issues - specifically solicitor's liability with respect to powers of attorney and an attorney's duty to account. Comments? Send us an email at hull.lawyers@gmail.com, call us on the comment line at 206-350-6636, or leave us a comment on the Hull on Estates blog.

Stop the news, I want to get off!

Posted on September 16, 2008
Boy, does August ever seem sleepy and restful in retrospect. After a summer in which the Beijing Olympics was probably the major story, the first two weeks of September have served to snap Canadians and Americans out of their reverie. Consider the following developments, all crammed into just over three weeks: - The US Democratic Convention, featuring the first African-American candidate on any US presidential ticket (and by my hasty reckoning the first black candidate with a strong chance to win executive office anywhere in the entire Western World), takes place from August 25 to August 28; - The US Republican Convention, featuring the first female candidate on a Republican ticket, and only the second in history, takes place from September 1 to 4; - Canadian Federal Election commences; - Hurricane Ike hits Texas; and - Financial turmoil hits the markets...

Sleepless Nights

Posted on September 15, 2008
Here’s a story from Calgary that will make every lawyer tremble documenting the conviction of a mother of three, and assistant at a law firm, for misappropriating $1.4 million from the firm’s trust account. A great reminder of the need to restrict access to a trust account and exercise vigilance in who can access it...

The All-Powerful Constructive Trust

Posted on September 12, 2008
In Langston v. Landen, a recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, one of three co-executors of an estate having a value of some $24 million (in the words of the Court) "managed to shunt the other two executors to the sidelines...

Georgia on My Mind

Posted on September 11, 2008
In 1949, Georgia O'Keeffe donated the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art to Fisk University ("Fisk") in Nashville, Tennessee. O'Keeffe, as executor of her late husband's estate, divided his collection of paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs and donated the nearly 1,000 pieces to six institutions, including Fisk...

The Limitations of a Notice of Contestation

Posted on September 10, 2008
Sections 44 and 45 of the Estates Act provide a summary procedure for the determination of claims and demands against estates. Certainly in my experience, this procedure would appear to be relatively seldom used. However, the possibly draconian effect of a Notice of Contestation is an important consideration for any solicitor asserting a claim against a client...

Will Challenge Litigation - Part 4 - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Video Podcast #129

Posted on September 10, 2008
This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on the Will Challenge Process, step by step. They continue to discuss the value of the discovery process and intense investigation. The goal is to get to the mediation process as soon as possible...

A "Lightbulb" Moment

Posted on September 09, 2008
"Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have." --- Thomas Edison Considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, Thomas Edison held over a thousand U.S. patents in his name (click here for a full list of all 1,093 patents)...

Will Challenge Litigation - Part 4 - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning

Posted on September 09, 2008
Listen to Will Challenge Litigation Part 4 This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on the Will Challenge Process, step by step. They continue to discuss the value of the discovery process and intense investigation...

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