Legal Papers
You’ve Been Appointed as Attorney for Property or Care – Now What?
It is now all too common that family disputes erupt over issues of capacity and managing parents’ property and personal care. As society ages and people live longer, more disputes and litigation will inevitably and regrettably arise (and already do). Clients come to lawyers seeking advice. Common questions included: What are the duties and responsibilities…read more
Protecting Yourself While You Protect Others
A constantly growing number of people are acting as attorneys for property and/or personal care due to the aging population. The role of attorney for property and/or personal care can be challenging in many ways, however, we do not often identify the attorney for property and/or personal care as the party requiring protection. This paper…read more
Recent Estate Cases that made a Difference and Why you Should Care
2016 saw the release of numerous interesting and important estates and trusts decisions. Justin de Vries and Joanna Lindenberg have summarized the top cases from the year and explained their impact on estates and trusts law. Starting with a discussion of the Court of Appeal decision in Spence v. BMO Trust Company, this paper also touches on…read more
Passing of Accounts and Business Assets
Passing the Trustee’s Accounts When There Are Business Assets At the beneficiaries’ insistence, or at his own initiation, a trustee[i] may apply to court to pass his accounts. Once in court passing format, the accounts will list the deceased’s assets as of date of death, and trace any subsequent disposition of those assets. However, where…read more
Cottage Succession Planning
Cottages are treasure-troves of memories and are part of the Canadian psyche. For many, the cottage is more than just a house by a lake. It is a place filled with memories of fishing and swimming and lying out under the stars on warm summer nights. It is therefore not surprising that most cottage owners…read more
Case Comment: Re: Estate of Dominico Grillo
Can an Ontario litigant bring a will challenge here to set aside a will made in Italy? This interesting question was recently answered affirmatively by Justice Newbould in the recent decision in Re Estate of Domenico Grillo. Read Angela’s case comment here.
Litigating Estate Disputes With Multi-Jurisdictional Assets
In today’s increasingly cosmopolitan world, it is not unusual for someone to own property in more than one jurisdiction. When a dispute arises with respect to the estate of a deceased with assets in multiple jurisdictions, there are several distinct but related issues that the estate litigator must consider. First, one must consider which jurisdiction’s…read more
Is the Right to Privacy Lost on Incapacity?
Everyone has a fundamental right to privacy. However, once a person becomes incapable of managing their own finances or health care decisions, their lives are inevitably made public to the person(s) stepping in to fill the role of decision-maker. Even for those not appointed a substitute decision-maker, it is common for family members and other…read more
Passing of Accounts – 2013
If a theme were to emerge from the contested passing of accounts cases that were decided in 2013, it would be “protect the innocent”. In some cases, this theme manifested itself in decisions to remove trustees who acted improperly or to surcharge trustees who misappropriated funds. In other cases, judges protected honest (albeit imperfect) fiduciaries…read more
Fraudulent Breach of Trust
All is not lost where the trustee of a trust breaches his fiduciary obligation, misappropriates trust assets, and disappears. Where there has been a fraudulent breach of trust, the defrauded beneficiaries are able to pursue strangers to the trust for damages or the return of the trust property. There are three main circumstances in which…read more