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Ambiguous Wills and How They Are Interpreted
The occasion may arise that a testator’s intentions as expressed in their Will are unclear. The ambiguity may be the result of drafting errors in the Will or a change in circumstances between the date the testator signed the Will and the date of death, but this change is not addressed in the Will. In…read more
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) – Still Controversial
In Canada, MAID has now been legal since June 2016 when the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation that allowed eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. However, the issue is by no means settled and the courts have been frequently called upon to referee MAID’s implementation and application. By way of background,…read more
Action? Application? What’s the Difference?
Litigation comes with its own jargon which is not easy to decipher. In Ontario a lawsuit/court proceeding is categorized as either an action or an application. What’s the difference? The terms are defined in the Rules of Civil Procedure, but these definitions are not terribly useful at first blush; an action is defined as “a…read more
I do not like the estate trustee/executor – can I get rid of them?
Can you apply for the removal of the estate trustee? Section 37(3) of the Trustee Act provides the court with legislative authority to grant an order removing an estate trustee upon the application of: -any executor or administrator desiring to be relieved from the duties of the office, or -any executor or administrator complaining of…read more
Does a Joint Bank Account Go to the Survivor or the Estate?
The Law of Resulting Trusts What happens to jointly owned assets following the death of one of the joint owners? In the normal course, full ownership passes to the surviving owner.[1] However, this result may seem unfair where only one of the owners paid for the property or, in the case of bank accounts, only…read more
What Happens When a Fiduciary Misappropriates Funds?
There is growing concern about the financial exploitation of the elderly by their attorneys for property. The combination of a cognitively impaired grantor (a person who appoints an attorney for property) paired with an attorney who has unfettered access to all of the grantor’s property creates the potential for financial abuse by attorneys. A power…read more
Ten Things You Need to Know Before Challenging a Will
The death of a loved one is a painful experience. The loss can become all the more difficult to accept for a potential beneficiary who had an expectation of receiving an inheritance under the deceased’s Will, but instead receives less than expected or nothing at all. The disappointed beneficiary may feel compelled to challenge the…read more
The Rights of a Surviving Spouse – Spousal Election
I just finished watching Mrs. America, the recent TV series that chronicles the fight by women in the 1970s to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the US Constitution. First proposed in 1921, the ERA sought to mandate equality between men and woman. In 1972, Congress passed the ERA, but they could not obtain…read more
Matrimonial Homes and Resulting Trusts
When a parent transfers property to a capable adult child without getting anything in return, the law does not assume this is a gift. Instead there is a (rebuttable) presumption that the child holds this property in trust for the parent (called a resulting trust). But what happens when that property is a matrimonial home…read more
Can an Attorney for Personal Care be Compensated?
When the issue of compensation is not specifically addressed in the Power of Attorney for Personal Care, a guardian for personal care may be wondering whether they are entitled to compensation. Legislation, however, does not provide a clear answer. While under the Substitute Decisions Act an attorney for property is expressly allowed to take compensation,…read more