I have clients who are a classic blended family. She had a child young and separated from the father when her daughter was three; he divorced his wife when his daughter was seven; when they married, they had a child together. They consider all three children to be...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about updating your will for your own benefit. Today, I want to talk about updating your will for the benefit of others. Last month, Elizabeth O’Brien wrote this article on MarketWatch. She mentions a vast number of reasons why it can be...

Many people know that, on marriage, in Ontario, your will is automatically revoked. There is a good public policy reason for this: your spouse should not be disinherited simply because you forgot to update your will. (I touched on the issue of predatory marriages a...

I see a lot of couples who come in to do their estate planning together. Usually, it is a first marriage for both, and they want to leave their entire estate to each other. This is a situation where it often makes sense for them to see me as a couple. Sometimes,...

In Ontario, much to the surprise of many, you cannot dictate what happens to your body on your death. It is, by law, the property of your executor. For that reason, it is incredibly important to have a will in place that names an executor if you want to ensure who...

Last time, I blogged about not adding someone on jointly to title simply to avoid probate. This time, it’s terminating joint ownership in order to protect your heirs. In Ontario, if you own property jointly with someone, you can sever the joint ownership at any time...

I have a lot of clients who ask me about adding a child on title to their property in order to save probate taxes down the road. And to almost all of them, I say that I don’t recommend it. Is your child married? What happens if they get divorced, and now their...

Whenever I see a new client about a will, I ask about digital assets. For most people, this is their social media and email account; once or twice I’ve had clients with PayPal accounts that they store money in, but never anything significant. So most of my clients...

For my clients who have young children, the most difficult question is often, who should be the guardian. The second most difficult question: when should they inherit? Generally, I would not recommend anyone inheriting at age 18; most 18-year-olds are not mature...