Can a Suicide Note be a Will?
May 13, 2022 By Brian Babcock IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE ARE EXPERIENCING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND MAY BE SUICIDAL, SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP IMMEDIATELY. HEALTH ISSUES ARE BEYOND OUR SCOPE OF WORK, AND EVEN THE BEST LEGAL HELP IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN YOUR HEALTH. The short answer is “yes it can”, which is a […]
A Trustee’s Discretion is Not Absolute
May 8, 2022 By Brian Babcock Unfortunately, family members do not always get along, and this may affect the administration of your estate. What happens if this leads to trustees of your estate abusing their power? The traditional approach to reviewing duty of a discretionary trustee is to consider whether and when they should exercise […]
Not Every Good Cause is a Charitable Purpose
May 8, 2022 By Brian Babcock Charitable trusts are major exceptions to the rule that a trust must have a person or persons as beneficiaries. A charitable trust also receives favourable tax treatment, and is exempt from rules about accumulating income or holding property in perpetuity. We have discussed purpose trusts generally before, but a […]
Marriage, Separation, and Your Estate Plan
April 9, 2022 By Brian Babcock Are you married? About to be married? About to become separated or divorced? Already separated but not divorced? If you answer any of these questions “yes”, you need to be aware of changes to Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act that came into effect on January 1st 2022. Prior to […]
What is a Fiduciary?
March 26, 2022 By Brian Babcock “What is a fiduciary?” is even harder to answer than “What is a Trust?”. In the case of both related concepts, there is no single definition that is generally accepted. Instead, we are given descriptions, examples, or tests to determine whether one exists. Unlike trusts, which have been recognized […]
What is a Certificate of Appointment? And do I need one?
Updated March 24, 2022 By Margaret Waddington What is a Certificate of Appointment? A Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will (or Without a Will) used to be referred to as “Letters Probate” and is sometimes referred to as an Estate Certificate. The Certificate of Appointment is a process where the court reviews […]
Is there Doctor-Patient Privilege?
February 27, 2022 By Brian Babcock A court is will make an order for production for inspection of a document that is in the possession of a non-party and is not privileged, if a) the document is relevant to a material issue in the action; and b) it would be unfair to require the moving […]
Trustees and Ethical Investing
February 7, 2022 By Brian Babcock One of the key duties of a trustee, including an estate trustee, is to invest the trust or estate assets. Failure to invest is a breach of trust, for which the trustee may be required to reimburse the estate or beneficiaries. But what do trustees invest in? And what […]
Trusts and Ethical Investing
November 29, 2021 By Brian Babcock Whether you are establishing a trust (by will or while alive), are a beneficiary, or are a trustee, one of the issues of concern might be the trustee’s duty to invest. What investments are allowed? In particular, what if you, whether settlor, trustee or beneficiary, holds strong views either […]
Whose Property Is It? Certainty in Estate Planning
October 16, 2021 By Brian Babcock Except in very limited circumstances, in your will, you may only give away property that you own. This may seem obvious, but we see recurring cases where people fight over whether an asset was truly owned by the deceased person. The most typical disagreement is whether or not the […]