The Family Inventory

This document helps families consolidate critical information to be kept in a safety deposit box or a secure safe in case of emergency or loss of a loved one.

Maximizing the value of your estate

From reducing taxes to ensuring your wealth transfer goes through smoothly for your loved ones, there are several strategies to build a careful estate plan custom to your situation, and we can help.

Watch this video and discover several tips for creating a tax-smart estate plan.

Estate Planning Guide

Planning for tomorrow, today

Wills and Will Planning Guide

Maintaining your Will throughout your lifetime

Acting as Power of Attorney

To be named a Power of Attorney is an incredible honour as it requires considerable trust in your abilities to manage your loved one's financial affairs. That said, managing someone's affairs also requires a great deal of time and emotional fortitude to continually speak on a loved one's behalf on major life decisions.

Watch this video to learn about the services available to help you manage what is an important responsibility at a trying time.

Understanding your responsibilities as an attorney, executor or trustee

Ninety-five per cent of us name a family member or friend to act as our attorney, executor or trustee to help manage our affairs if we become incapacitated, to help settle our estate after we pass away or to administer an ongoing trust.

When the time comes to act, many people find they do not have the knowledge, interest or time to properly fulfill their responsibilities as an Attorney, Executor or Trustee. That’s why it’s important to keep everyone concerned well informed about their various responsibilities and to consider your options, whether you are naming someone, or you have been named yourself.

Agent for executor

How our estate settlement services can support you

If you feel burdened by the tasks of settling an estate, or simply lack the time or expertise to undertake your executor role, we are here to help. We are committed to providing you with strong, knowledgeable support, assuming as much or as little of the administrative tasks as your personal situation requires.

Agent for trustee

How our trustee services can support you

If you feel burdened by the tasks of administering a trust, or simply lack the time or expertise to undertake your trustee role, we are here to help. We are committed to providing you with knowledgeable support in trust custody, record-keeping and accounting, assuming as many or as few of the administrative tasks as your personal situation requires.

Power of Attorney administration

How our services can support you

If you are currently acting as an attorney and are feeling overwhelmed by the tasks involved, or lack the time or expertise required to carry out your duties, we are here to help. We are committed to providing you with strong, knowledgeable support, assuming as many or as few of the administrative tasks as your personal situation requires.

Using a family trust for a prescribed rate loan

A family trust can be used to implement a prescribed rate loan income-splitting strategy to help reduce a family’s tax burden. This arrangement is typically beneficial for families where one member has significantly more taxable income than the other family members.

Estate planning for blended families

Where to begin with new beginnings?

Estate planning is important so that you can retain more of your assets, protect your estate and leave a lasting legacy for your family. Being part of a blended family adds another level of complexity to your estate plan. It will affect how you should divide your assets after your death. The difficult decision often comes in finding the right balance between protecting your own children and sufficiently providing for your current spouse. Leaving the decision up to either your spouse or your children as to how to divide your assets after your death leaves the door wide open for conflict and hard feelings, regardless of how good the relationship between your spouse and your children may be.

To make planning for blended families as uncomplicated as possible, it is important to communicate expectations. Be open with everyone who has a stake in the planning and discuss everyone’s needs and desires. It is better to have the difficult conversations upfront and avoid unfounded assumptions, than to deal with conflict down the road as a result of a lack of communication.

Canadian vacation property succession planning

Vacation properties go by many names: cottage, chalet, camp, cabin or secondary home. Regardless of what they call it, many Canadians receive great personal enjoyment from their vacation property. Some owners feel it is important to keep the vacation property within the family and need help planning how to transfer ownership to younger family members. This article reviews various tax implications and strategies that can be used in passing ownership of the family vacation property to the next generation.

Alter ego and joint partner trusts

An estate planning strategy to protect your wealth

You’ve taken a lifetime to accumulate your wealth. You want to ensure that your estate is well protected and that your assets are managed according to your wishes, both during your lifetime and beyond. An Alter Ego or Joint Spousal or Common-Law Partner Trust (“Joint Partner Trust”) can help you do just that by minimizing probate tax, protecting your capital from potential undue influence and giving you the peace of mind that your finances are being properly managed. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some basic information on alter ego and joint partner trusts, discuss some of their benefits and drawbacks and outline some scenarios where it may be beneficial to use trusts of this kind.

Henson Trusts

This article considers the use of a Henson Trust as an estate planning tool to provide for the ongoing care and financial support of a person with a disability.

Testamentary trusts

A reason to consider amending your Will

It is common to distribute your assets on death outright to your loved ones. A testamentary trust is an alternative to a direct or outright distribution of estate assets. It allows you to control the timing and distribution of assets to your beneficiaries. The assets held in the trust are invested and managed by the trustee of the trust, who distributes the income and capital to the beneficiaries in accordance with your wishes stated in your Will. This article discusses reasons why you may want to consider amending your Will and reviewing your current ownership structure to provide for a transfer of some or all of your assets to a testamentary trust.

Testamentary spousal trusts

It is common to distribute your assets on death outright to your surviving spouse. A testamentary spousal trust is an alternative to an outright distribution of your estate assets to your spouse. It may allow you to have more flexibility in dealing with complex family situations. A testamentary spousal trust is also a means of protecting and maintaining control of your assets on death as the trustee you choose invests and manages the assets held in trust. This article discusses reasons you may want to consider amending your Will and reviewing the current ownership structure of your assets to provide for a transfer of some or all of your assets to a testamentary spousal trust.

Marriage breakdown tax and estate planning considerations

Marriage breakdown can affect both your income and your assets and has a number of legal, tax and estate planning implications. The following is an overview of typical issues arising as a result of a divorce or separation. Please note that for tax purposes, both married and common-law spouses are considered to be separated if they have been living separate and apart for at least 90 days as a result of a breakdown in the relationship and have not reconciled during this time. Independent legal and tax advice should be obtained in the case of a marriage breakdown.

Estate freeze

Freeze the value of your assets and transfer future growth to your family.

If you are the sole owner of your corporation, you may be wondering if there are other ways to structure the ownership of your corporation to improve tax efficiency and simplify planning for your estate. An estate freeze is a tool that can be used to restructure the ownership of your corporation by limiting the value of your assets and transferring future growth to your family. This article focuses on planning considerations for freezes involving incorporated family businesses and individuals with a portfolio of investments held in an investment holding company.

Income Taxes at Death

Coping with the death of someone you care about is stressful enough. The legal, financial and tax considerations at this time only add to this stress. This article contains information that may assist a deceased’s legal representative and the family in settling the deceased’s tax affairs.

Non-resident executors

Did you know that where your executor/liquidator lives may affect the administration of your estate?

By appointing a non-resident of Canada as the sole executor/liquidator of your estate, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) may consider your estate to be a non-resident of Canada. This could potentially trigger some negative tax consequences, regardless of how capable and willing the proposed executor/liquidator may be. This article will discuss some of those negative tax consequences as well as some other challenges a non-resident executor/liquidator may face.