Most of us have pretty standard assets: bank accounts, houses, cars, maybe some investments or a pension. What happens if you own a copyright over works of art? The first question is whether you want anything specific done with your works of art. You can specifically...
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Estate Planning
Death and taxes
Someone once said that the only sure things are death and taxes. Sometimes, those come together. When you die, you still owe taxes for the year of your death. You could also owe back taxes, and Canada Revenue Agency will not forgive them because the person has died....
Digital access
I have written many times about digital assets, and how access to them after death can be extremely difficult. In Delaware, they recently took a giant leap toward increasing access. Since August 2014, if you are acting as a fiduciary, whether during someone’s...
The top 10 celebrity estates of 2014
As the year draws to a close, there will be a lot of Top 10 lists showing up - biggest disasters, best cat videos, and of course, endless lists about celebrities. Andy and Danielle Mayoras over at Forbes have compiled a list of the top 10 celebrity estates of 2014,...
Lessons in end of life care from Joan Rivers
As most people will know, Joan Rivers passed away in early September. She was a pioneer in the comedy world, and a larger-than-life figure. She also took death in stride, regularly making jokes about it in her comedy acts and online. It turns out that she did more...
What to do when you’re dead, science edition
If you have heard of the website IFL Science, you will know that it is full of amazing and bizarre facts about life, the universe, and our place in both. This article from a while back caught my attention. Basically, it runs through all of the ways you can be disposed...
Do you have a valid will?
Here is a beautiful infographic about having a valid will that speaks for itself. Enjoy!
Stolen identity
You hear about it all the time in the news: someone has had their identity stolen, and the identity thief has racked up thousands of dollars in purchases, destroyed the person’s identity, possibly even committed crimes in the real person’s name. It can be devastating...
The legacy of Ulysses
When I was in high school, I took several years of Latin. As part of the course, we spent a fair bit of time learning about Greek and Roman mythology, which always fascinated me. Ulysses, or Odysseus in the Greek version, was a noble in ancient Greece. He fought with...
A language lesson
Today, I thought I would talk about two terms that are commonly used in estates, but that most people likely don’t have any clue what the meaning is: abatement and ademption. Abatement happens when there isn’t quite enough in the estate to give everyone their gifts....