Last week, I wrote about the incredible importance of a properly-drafted property power of attorney with the right person chosen to act. This week, I wanted to focus on care. There has been a lot of discussion lately in Canada about end-of-life care; just a few weeks...
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estate planning
Untying the knot
This week ends my trilogy on marriage and divorce with the question: what happens to your estate plan when you divorce? Most people would be quite surprised to learn that divorce in Ontario does not automatically revoke a will. Instead, what happens depends on how far...
Not tying the knot
Last week, I talked about marriage, and how it revokes a will. This week, I’m going to talk about common law relationships. In Canada, generally speaking, there is no difference societally between a couple who is married and one who is living together but not married....
Tying the knot
I got married at the end of October last year. Among other things, signing that piece of paper meant that my husband and I no longer had wills; the ones we had signed about a year before that were automatically revoked the moment we were married. This is a point that...
Death in the middle of divorce
I am currently assisting two clients with estate administration for their husbands, both of whom died very suddenly and without wills. The situations are opposite, and it comes down to a separation agreement. For my first client, she and her husband had been separated...
Planning for plants
I love my houseplants. I have some beautiful ones that I rooted off old plants of my mother’s, and some that I received as gifts in small planters that I have grown to huge plants, almost small trees. For me, they are far more than mere decorations, but it had never...
Who owns your embryos?
If digital assets are the next frontier of estate planning, biological assets are the next next frontier. It is up in the air as to who has rights over your online self after your death; it is equally mystifying who might have rights over physical parts of you. There...
A separation
In Ontario, marriage automatically revokes a will. The moment I sign my marriage documents this October, it will revoke my current will; I could choose to revive it later, but I would have to deliberately do so. The rationale for this is that a spouse or future...
The extreme importance of choosing the right executor
A recent case from the Ontario court of appeal indicates why it is so incredibly important to think of all the circumstances when choosing an executor for your estate. Antonio Di Michele was named executor of his mother’s will; the will left her house equally to...
Fair, but not equal
It’s a classic movie scenario: mom or dad dies, the will is read, and one child ends up with far more than the other, leading to extreme conflict between the siblings. The problem is that it doesn’t just happen in movies. It’s not at all uncommon for parents to decide...