When your legal fees are the same size as the entire estate you’re fighting over, you know something has gone wrong. One of the enduring and recurring lessons that I have learned in my long career in estates law is that money makes people crazy. And it doesn’t have to
Mirror wills are among the most common choice for married couples getting their estates in order. The technique sees both partners executing their own, almost identical will, each naming the other as the main beneficiary of their estate, with instructions for the distribution of assets by the surviving spouse –
Opening a joint account with your child is not a step to be taken lightly. There are undeniably good estate planning reasons for owning property jointly with a beneficiary, since it’s a simple and effective way to transfer funds without triggering the 1.5 per-cent probate tax otherwise payable on assets
There’s nothing that blurs the lines between personal and corporate property quite like a family business. And when the founders die, leaving behind their feuding children, it only complicates matters more, as a recent court decision shows. According to the Appeal Court ruling, the seeds of the dispute were sown
When it comes to powers of attorney, many hands often make heavy work, especially when siblings are involved. Considering the immense responsibility that comes with an appointment under a POA, I can understand why grantors are tempted to share the duties among several of their children. And while it is
Testamentary ambiguity can arise at any time. In an ideal world, we would all make our wills on the day we die, so that every one of the choices we make about our assets, beneficiaries and executors would still make perfect sense when the time comes for the document to
