There is a very well-known case in Ontario called Banton v. Banton. In that case, an elderly man married a waitress in his long-term care facility and subsequently redid his will, cutting out his children from his first marriage and leaving his new wife his entire...
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Estate Planning
Talk about ruling from the grave!
When Wellington Burt died, he was one of the richest men in America. He was a self-made man, having earned his fortune in timber and iron. He was philanthropic during his lifetime, sharing his wealth with the people in his community – he built a hospital, an...
Lifestyles of the rich and famous
I read this article in the Globe and Mail the other day, about estate planning for very wealthy families. Some points the author raises: estate planning is very complex, and involves multiple meetings with potentially multiple professionals; estate planning gets even...
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
I often get asked by clients or prospective clients about doing minor changes to their wills, usually in the form of a change in their executors. Any change to a will, while keeping the existing will valid, is called a codicil. Codicils were developed because of the...
Why plan when you’re going to live to 100?
Over the summer, I discovered the blog of the brilliant Candice Aiston, a lawyer out of Portland, Oregon who works in the area of estate planning. My favourite post of hers so far, by far, is her essay on planning for the unexpected. As Candice notes, asking whether...
Survey says…
Saman Jaffery at Hull & Hull wrote an interesting post a few weeks back about the lack of estate planning among boomers. She quotes a survey from BMO which was released recently that highlights the major issue with boomer estate plans: 90% of boomers have wills,...
This tech startup is deadly
Gerry Beyer at the Wills, Trusts and Estates Prof Blog posted last week about a very intriguing new tech startup: I-Postmortem. I-Postmortem runs two services. The first, I-Tomb, costs $50 annually, and lets you create a virtual cemetery. You can upload photos,...
Pickup lines for estates lawyers
I came across this post by the Zucker Law Firm in Virginia on the best estate planning pickup lines. My runner up? "I don’t think you can be a witness, because you have undue influence over me." My absolute favourite? "Hey, I draft wills! What were your other two...
How far would you go for a DNR?
I came across this article the other day, about a woman in Norfolk, England who had "Do Not Resuscitate" tattooed on her chest so that doctors would make no mistake about her intentions should she be found unconscious. And, just in case she is found face down, she...
A made-for-TV movie – except it’s real
I came across this story today, which seems to combine the worst elements of elder abuse and fraud. In a nutshell: Frank Blumeyer, a wealthy resident of Naples, Florida, befriended his neighbours, Allen and Marcia Brufsky. Within a year, he had loaned them significant...