If you are on Ontario’s disability savings program, there are options for saving funds. There is a plan called the Registered Disability Savings Plan that allows you to invest up to $100,000.00 for your personal use, which will not affect your ability to stay in the...

So don’t write changes onto it, thinking that they’ll be effective.  For that matter, a typed will that required witnesses needs any changes to be initialled by you and by two witnesses. If you want to make changes to your will, your best plan is to see a lawyer to...

So many people are surprised to hear that marriage automatically revokes a will. For a first marriage, this is not such a big deal; when I got married, I would have wanted my husband to inherit from me if I hadn’t updated my will at that time anyway. The problem...

The choice of your executor is probably the most important decision you will make when you do your will. Your executor will be responsible for burying you, for selling all of your stuff and collecting the cash, for communicating with beneficiaries, and for...

And your RSP, and your TFSA, and your RIF. Ontario has some laws that many people would find surprising. For example, marriage automatically revokes a will, but divorce, separation and death do not; none of those will change a beneficiary designation on life...

We all do it – we put off things that don’t seem urgent, and maybe someday get around to them. Certain things just seem less pressing, and so we delay them even if we know that they are important. This blog post was supposed to go live this morning, and here I am at...

I have more than one client in a blended family. Sometimes, the family is so well blended that the stepparent considers the stepchild to be his or her actual child, but in law, they are treated differently. If you die without a will, your stepchildren have no right of...

Prince died without a will, leaving his entire estate to be shared by his siblings. For people who are unmarried and have no children, this is a very important lesson: if you want to control where your assets go, you need a will. The default rule is usually not the...

In Ontario, the only prohibitions on full freedom within your will are that you cannot cut out someone who is financially dependent on you, and you cannot prevent a spouse from what they would be entitled to if you had separated the day before your death. If you truly...