Estate Planning

May We Suggest...

By Hull & Hull LLP

Hull & Hull's web page now features a new category for "Recommended Reading" under our "Links" page.  Check in often for updates that connect our readers to timely and informative reading materials in the estates area.

In April 2008, Ian Hull suggested a recent article featured in a special section on wealth and personal finance in the New York Times titled "Families Break the Silence on Inheritance".  With everything that has been written out there lately on wealthy families electing to bequeath their estates to charities or foundations, rather than to their own children and grandchildren (i.e  such as Warren Buffett and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick), this article confirms that people are paying more attention to the values they hope to pass on to the next generation.  Recent blogs by Diane Viera and David Smith of Hull and Hull LLP canvass this issue further.

The article suggests that this fundamental shift in philosophy stems from an entrepreneurial generation that has earned its wealth, rather than inherited it.  In the estate planning context, not only are clients seeking advice on ways to transfer wealth with minimal tax impact, but they are asking more esoteric questions such as "what is the purpose and meaning of what I'm doing here, and and how do I pass those values down?".  

Keep posted for our regular updates.

Sarah Hyndman Fitzpatrick

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on May 15, 2008 (boomark / email).