Wills & Estates Blog

Canadians should take heed after Do-it-yourself wills were blamed for a post-pandemic spike in U.K. will challenges.  According to a news report by the London-based Financial Times, a freedom of information request by local law firm Nockolds revealed that almost 10,000 challenges were made to the distribution of inherited estates

Canadians with vacation plans should add an extra item to their pre-travel checklist: update your will. Every winter, millions of Canadians head south to escape the winter weather – some for months at a time. Few would give a second thought before purchasing travel insurance to protect themselves should the

Canada’s growing population of grey divorcees should make a new estate plan part of their fresh start in life.  While Statistics Canada reports that the country’s overall divorce rate has plunged in the last 30 years, one group has bucked the trend: over-50s.  In the early 1990s, roughly 13 of

In the worst cases, feuding family members will go to war in court, seizing on words and phrases in a loved one’s will that are open to interpretation, in order to raise doubts about whether the estate was distributed to the right beneficiaries.  In less contentious – but just as

Details matter when you’re drafting a will.  The case list in Ontario’s Superior Court is full of feuding family members who have seized on inaccuracies and ambiguities in a loved one’s will to challenge the inheritances left to their fellow beneficiaries.  But mistakes in a will don’t always need to

Testators do not get the last word over the guardianship of their minor children, but that shouldn’t stop you from naming your preferred caregivers just in case the worst should happen.  Although it thankfully rarely has to be invoked, the appointment of a guardian for young children is one of