Wills & Estates Blog

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‘Fill-in-the-blanks’ will kit ends up in court  

A Do-it-yourself will may save you some money now, but it will probably cost your beneficiaries later.  The problem for testators who go it alone without the benefit of legal advice is that they are prone to the kinds of errors and emissions that end up needing litigation to sort

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Boomers lagging on estate planning

Baby Boomers need to get a move on with their estate plans.  Investment Executive magazine recently reported on a survey of Boomers that found a stunning 44 per cent of those who planned to leave an inheritance have yet to get an estate plan in place.   With the country’s largest intergenerational transfer

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Will’s disappearance sparks estate litigation  

Having gone to the trouble of drafting a will, you don’t want to undo your good work by letting it get lost.   If the original version of your will can not be found when the time comes for it to go into effect, your heirs could end up wasting time and money

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You’re never too young to make a will

A recent fall in life expectancy rates is a reminder that you’re never too young to make a will.   Between 2020 and 2022, the life expectancy of the average North American dropped for the first time in decades. In the U.S., the headline figure decreased from almost 79 years to just

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Charity accuses executor of misappropriating $400k from estate

A charity’s pursuit of $400,000 in missing estate funds should remind testators just how important it is to choose the right executor.  According to a recent CBC news story, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has launched a lawsuit to recover funds it claims were misappropriated from the estate

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Don’t let ‘substantial compliance’ success breed complacency

The era of “substantial compliance” is well underway in Ontario.   Just over two years after lawmakers at Queen’s Park passed Bill 245, the Accelerating Access to Justice Act – moving the province from a “strict compliance” regime to one of “substantial compliance” – the legal decisions on the topic are beginning

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