Last fall, Apple and Facebook made news by announcing that they would cover the cost of any female employee who wished to freeze her eggs in order to preserve her fertility for having a biological child later in life. There has been both criticism and applause for the...
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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....
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...
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...
Answer the questions
In our office, we have all of our estate planning clients fill out a questionnaire before coming in to see us. Our questionnaire is about five pages long, and goes through who is in the family, what assets you have, and whether you have agreements that we might need...
A Hollywood estate done right
A short time ago, Paul Walker, star of the Fast and Furious movies, died in a car crash. He left behind a 15-year-old daughter and an estate worth an estimated $15 million. He drafted his will back in 2001, when his daughter was very young, and named his father as...
iWill
In Ontario, a holograph will is a will that is done entirely in your own handwriting, and signed and dated at the end. However, it must be entirely in your own handwriting – one typed word can make the entire will invalid. In Australia, a will on an iPhone has been...
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...
Time for a change
In this day and age, it is not uncommon to have a former spouse (or more than one former spouse). If you are separated or divorced, however, you must remember to change your beneficiary designations. Beneficiary designations are done through the financial institution...