A New Challenge for Estate Advisors When BC’s estate laws changed in 2014, one of the more interesting changes was the addition of what is often called a “curative power”.…

Not Just “Plain-Jane” Cremation Anymore As professionals, we help our clients express wishes about funeral preferences in their Wills – did you know that wishes expressed in the Will are…

What You Ought NOT to Do Using a Power of Attorney As we reflect on the client situations we have encountered over the past year, we thought it timely to…

With all the buzz surrounding the Federal Government’s recently proposed tax changes, talk of income splitting and passive investments has dominated the headlines, taking the spotlight away from the government’s…

Documenting Intention After Transfer As more and more people look to joint tenancy as a “cheap” or “self-help” way of estate planning, we continue to raise concerns about the disadvantages…

The Forgotten Estate Planning Tool Is there a Shareholders’ Agreement in place? Did you know that it is a critical component of a small business owner’s estate and succession plan?…

In a recent court case in BC, a factually untrue, written explanation by a Will-maker for disinheriting a family member proved inaccurate and was ultimately ignored by the Court. We…

Since 2007 and the ground-breaking Supreme Court of Canada case of Pecore v. Pecore (“Pecore”), the Courts have decided many cases concerning assets held in joint tenancy, and have had…

Do You have a Claim? As estate lawyers, we get a lot of questions about wills variation – questions like, what is wills variation? Who can vary a Will? How…

In most Estates, there is no reason to fault the Executor, but one who abuses his/her power, causes harm to the Estate, or fails to perform duties properly can warrant…

If you’re the beneficiary of an estate, it may often appear that you are at the mercy of the executor, regardless of how lazy, incompetent, or even dishonest that person…

In a prior bulletin, we wrote about common errors and misconceptions that executors often encounter when administering estates. Here are some more common mistakes that executors make: Not following the…

Life Insurance Trusts During a previous bulletin, we discussed the downsides to naming a child (under age 19) as a direct beneficiary of a life insurance policy. Most significantly, the…

What Is Probate? Probate of a Will gives the executors the court-sanctioned authority to deal with the estate assets, as directed by the Will. Probate of a Will is not…

The laws in British Columbia regarding wills changed dramatically in March of 2014, when the new Wills, Estates and Succession Act (“WESA”) came into force. One of the most significant…

Every so often we encounter a client (the “Insured”) who has designated their young children (or child) as the direct beneficiaries of their life insurance policy (the “Policy”). Most commonly…

A person must be “of sound mind, memory and understanding” to be able to make a valid Will. This means that the person must be sufficiently clear in his/her understanding…