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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

Estate Planning and Assisted Human Reproduction - Hull on Estates #220

Posted on August 31, 2010
Listen to: Estate Planning and Assisted Human Reproduction This week on Hull on Estates, Kathryn Pilkington and Paul Trudelle discuss an article by Clare Burns entitled "Mission Impossible: Estate Planning and Assisted Human Reproduction", and the numerous estate planning issues that arise from assisted human reproduction...

She Killed Him For His Batman Collection

Posted on August 30, 2010
Over the weekend, I was reading some international publications, when I came across a rather interesting article in The New York Times about Ben Novack Jr., and his Batman collection. Novack is said to have the second largest, Batman themed collection, in the country...

Pension Cheque Misadventure

Posted on August 27, 2010
When I read a recent article about Mr. Butler, an unemployed Ottawa man who had been cashing his father's government pension cheques for seven years after his death (totaling about $115,000), I couldn't help but get just a little annoyed. Reportedly, he spent most of it at strip clubs - another irritating fact! How this apparently happened was that after his father's death, his pension cheques continued to be directly deposited into their joint bank account...

How 'predatory marriages' affect property and estates

Posted on August 26, 2010
The August 13, 2010 edition of Lawyers Weekly featured an article by Kimberly Whaley with the above-captioned title. The article dealt with the relationship between marriage, property, and estates and the resulting risk of predatory marriages. I think it's safe to presume that the majority of people believe that once they have executed a Will, their carefully considered estate plans are locked in...

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Faking Deaths A New Phenomenon

Posted on August 25, 2010
Just when I thought I'd seen it all, I came across this blog about a Coffin Academy in South Korea that offers a motivational program seeking to inspire people to lead more fulfilling lives by simulating death. This is an interesting concept given that South Korea apparently has the highest suicide rate in the developed world...

Estate Administration - Part 2 - Hull on Estates and Succession Planning #211

Posted on August 25, 2010
Listen to: Estate Administration - Part 2 This week on Hull on Estates and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue their discussion on estate administration. Specifically, they examine what would happen if one did not have an affidavit of execution during an estate administration...

The Right to Palliative Care

Posted on August 24, 2010
You may recall that not long ago Kathryn Pilkington and I podcasted about assisted suicide and the defeated bill entitled the Right to Die with Dignity Act, which sought to legalize death assistance beyond terminal illness to include assistance to individuals who are experiencing debilitating physical or mental pain...

Estate Distribution - Hull on Estates #219

Posted on August 24, 2010
Listen to: Estate Distribution This week on Hull on Estates, Suzana Popovic-Montag and Ian Hull discuss how estates are distributed and what the priorities in estate distribution are. If you have any comments, send us an email at hull.laywers@gmail or leave a comment on our blog...

Probate Granted Despite Irregularities in the Will

Posted on August 23, 2010
In Laidlaw Estate, Re, a recent decision of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, the court considered an application for a grant of probate in respect of a Will containing handwritten changes. The key facts are that the Deceased executed a typewritten Will made with the assistance of a lawyer...

The Importance of Having a Will

Posted on August 20, 2010
For my final blog for the week, I want to discuss an article recently featured in Forbes.com, which considers the importance of having a Will. If an individual dies without a Will, he is said to have died intestate. When a person dies intestate, their assets are distributed pursuant to the intestate provisions contained in the Succession Law Reform Act...

Deceased User Policies: Twitter and Facebook

Posted on August 19, 2010
Social Media is not a fad and is fundamentally changing the ways we interact and communicate with others. Two of the more popular social networking websites, Twitter and Facebook, recently implemented policies that set out guidelines regarding a user's account once they have died...

Michael Jackson Estate Litigation Continued...

Posted on August 18, 2010
Bridging the gap between principle and common sense can be tough for parties involved in litigation. World renowned pop artist, Michael Jackson, died over one year ago on June 25, 2009. As with most estate disputes, they tend to be costly both emotionally and financially, and this tends to be the focus of everyone watching, despite all the good deeds that one may have accomplished during his or her lifetime...

Fundamentals of Estate Administration - Hull on Estates and Succession Planning #210

Posted on August 18, 2010
Listen to: Fundamentals of Estate Administration This week on Hull on Estates and Succession Planning Ian Hull and Suzana Popovic-Montag discuss the process of personal estate administration and what to expect. If you have any comments, send us an email at hullandhull@gmail...

Organ Donation in Ontario

Posted on August 17, 2010
My friend owns a Chrysler dealership, and at the bottom of each of her ads, she includes a note in tiny font suggesting 'Wise customers always read the fine print'. Those pondering organ donation in Ontario would be well-advised to follow this same adage...

Morgan (Estate) v. Morgan, 2010 BCCA 299 - Hull on Estates #218

Posted on August 17, 2010
Listen to: Morgan (Estate) v. Morgan, 2010 BCCA 299 This week on Hull on Estates, Paul Trudelle and Rick Bickhram discuss the case of Morgan (Estate) v. Morgan out of the British Columbia Court of Appeal. The issues examined are timing, fulfillment of conditions under court orders and how this case is relevant to others in similar situations...

Online Funerals

Posted on August 16, 2010
Computers have become a staple in the lives of human beings, such that it is difficult to imagine that there was a point in time when they did not exist. In an effort to remain current with technology, some funeral homes have incorporated the use of technology in how loved ones say their final farewells...

Could Ex-Pats Be Calling Mars Their Home?

Posted on August 13, 2010
We often think of death in terms of the impact it will have on each of us individually. How my grandparent's death affects my life? Who will I leave my estate to? Stephen Hawking, famed physicist has recently addressed the idea that the human race as a whole may be on the verge of extinction, unless we colonize Space...

A Beautiful Legacy

Posted on August 12, 2010
Legacy, and all that it encompasses is often at the forefront of Estate litigation. ‘Dad didn't want that' or ‘Mom would have wanted me to have that' is often at the heart of the arguments we make. It must certainly be prevalent in the minds of testators when they are considering who gets what...

Leaving it all to Charity - A Good Plan or an Estate Litigator's Dream

Posted on August 11, 2010
I vaguely remember the first time I saw Warren Buffett's granddaughter interviewed regarding his intentions to leave the majority of his wealth to charity. I don't think that I gave it the consideration it deserved. This issue has taken center stage once again with a quick request from Buffett, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates...

Buried with Dignity? Maybe not.

Posted on August 10, 2010
We would all like to believe that being buried with dignity is a guarantee, something our loved ones won't have to stress about in such a difficult time. This guarantee is one that the City of Toronto seems to also believe in. Yet the cost of funerals for those who don't leave enough behind to cover the costs has been falling on the local funeral business owners, who are now stepping up to ask for greater assistance...

Interpreting Ambiguity in a Will or Trust - Hull on Estate and Succession Planning #208

Posted on August 10, 2010
Listen to: Interpreting Ambiguity in a Will or Trust This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian continues his discussion on what happens when words in a will are not clear and explains the various methods that can be used to seek interpretation...

Preservation of Rights in Pending Litigation - Hull on Estates #217

Posted on August 10, 2010
Listen to: Preservation of Rights in Pending Litigation This week on Hull on Estates, David Smith and Rick Bickhram discuss rules 40 through 45 of the rules of Civil Procedures, which deal with the preservation of rights in pending litigation and the nature of these remedies in the estates context...

Pardoning for Billy the Kid

Posted on August 09, 2010
For some, the name ‘Billy the Kid' may conjure images of an old western film, likely because that's how he became a household name. Yet, Billy was a real outlaw in the late 1880s who died at the hands of Pat Garrett nearly 130 years ago. A recent article in the Toronto Star notes that a posthumous pardon for Billy the Kid may be in the works in New Mexico...

Foolish Friday

Posted on August 06, 2010
Earlier this week, I came across a funny web page by Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe. In 'Wills, Clauses & Other 'Narishkayt', Ms. Wolfe sets out particulars of certain will clauses of note. ('Narishkayt', she explains, is the Yiddish word for 'foolishness'...

Still More on Mutual Wills

Posted on August 05, 2010
I have previously posted on the doctrine of 'mutual wills'. See my Breakfast Seminar, here, and my blog of September 24, 2008, here. The issue of mutual wills was front and centre in the July 26, 2010 decision of Re Hand Estate, 2010 NSSC 297 (CanLII)...

How to Pursue Recovery - Hull on Estates #216

Posted on August 05, 2010
This week on Hull on Estates Chris Graham and Natalia Angelini discuss how to pursue recovery when one thinks that a trustee or fiduciary has absconded with funds. Listen to: How to Pursue Recovery This week on Hull on Estates Chris Graham and Natalia Angelini discuss how to pursue recovery when one thinks that a trustee or fiduciary has absconded with funds...

Not So Fast: Disclaiming a Bequest and Acceleration

Posted on August 04, 2010
What happens if a Will gives a life interest in an estate to A, with a gift over to B, C and D, or their issue alive upon A's death, and A decides to disclaim her interest in the estate? This issue was considered in Clarke v. Di Bella, 2010 BCSC 505 (CanLII)...

All the More Reason to Put a Ring On It

Posted on August 03, 2010
A Nova Scotia judge recently ruled that a lottery prize was not assumed to be mutual asset to be divided upon the breakdown of a common-law relationship. The National Post recently reported on a man and a woman who had been living together for a number of years and had won $50,000 on a scratch-and-win ticket...

Mysterious Charitable Gifts - The Smithsonian Legacy

Posted on July 30, 2010
The Smithsonian in Washington DC is the largest museum in the world and houses the legacy of an entire country. A little known fact is that this American national treasure is owed to a legacy of a different kind, a single charitable bequest by a man who had never even visited the United States...

The Beauty and Glamour of Estates, Trusts and Capacity Law

Posted on July 29, 2010
Who says estates law isn't glamorous? A French judge in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, has recently rejected the second attempt by Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers to obtain guardianship over her mother, Liliane Bettencourt. 87-year-old Bettencourt is the sole heir of L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company that her father founded in 1909...

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