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Estate Planning

Toronto Estate Law Blog

Provided by Hull & Hull.

Post Frequency: 10.9/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 08:48:24

Appeal Panel Finds Bias at LSUC Hearing

Posted on June 21, 2010
I could not help but do a double-take when I came across an article with the above-captioned title in the Law Times (June 7, 2010 issue). It was reported that in 2004, a Toronto lawyer was charged by the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) with professional misconduct for conflict of interest while acting as an estate trustee and solicitor without adequate disclosure to the beneficiaries...

Smartphones and the Legal Profession

Posted on June 18, 2010
There has been so much that has been recently written about the release of the iPad and more recently, the new iPhone 4G. Some may remember that an Apple Software Engineer who was working on the iPhone 4G accidentally forgot the Smartphone at a local bar, prior to its release date...

The Need to Plan our Estates

Posted on June 17, 2010
I recently read an article named 'The Lessons of Famously Bad Estate Planning', authored by Steven Morelli. This article looks at disasters that have followed celebrities because of the absence of a properly planned Will. Jimi Hendrix died without a Will which started a family war that would end up in court for more than 30 years...

The Valuation of Life Estates

Posted on June 16, 2010
Recently, I was looking over some of the leading cases in life estates. One of the questions that stood out in my mind was whether or not a life estate has a quantifiable value. Aho v. Kelly, was heard in British Columbia in 1998, but remains a leading Canadian case that is often referred to when the valuation of life estates are being considered...

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Settlement and the ADR Process - Part 2 - Hull on Estates and Succession Planning #205

Posted on June 16, 2010
Listen to:Settlement and the ADR Process-Part 2-Hull on Estates and Succession Planning #205 This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana continue the discussion on mediation, settlement and the ADR process. Topics discussed include: what is crucial to a case, good preparation, and the purpose of an open session...

Recap: OBA Trust and Estates Section - Hull on Estates #211

Posted on June 16, 2010
Listen to: Recap: OBA Trust and Estates Section - Hull on Estates #211 This week on Hull on Estates Craig Vander Zee and Chris Graham change the pace by recapping the OBA Trust and Estates Section, year end dinner that on June 1, 2010. Held in the distillery district, the evening was a tribute to those who had won awards and an opportunity to pay tribute to the Honourable Justice Cullity...

EXELON PATCH

Posted on June 15, 2010
With dementia on the rise and as our society continues to age, many pharmaceutical companies are taking aim at inventing a drug that will reduce if not cure dementia all together. One such company, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., sold the Exelon patch, which essentially is a transdermal patch which is used to treat mild to moderate symptoms of dementia...

RIP GARY COLEMAN

Posted on June 14, 2010
Former child actor Gary Coleman died after being hospitalized recently with a head injury. He was 42. Coleman is best remembered from the sitcom Different Strokes, where he played the comical kid actor, which led him to the fame that he enjoyed. Unfortunately, what appears to be a growing trend among popular child actors, Coleman's acting career all but ended with the onset of adulthood, but that did not remove Coleman from the public eye...

WILL INSTRUCTIONS RESPECTING REMAINS

Posted on June 14, 2010
Former child actor Gary Coleman died after being hospitalized earlier this week with a head injury. He was 42. Coleman is best remembered from the sitcom Different Strokes, where he played the comical kid actor, which led him to his fame. Unfortunately, in what appears to be a trend among popular child actors, Coleman's career all but ended with the onset of adulthood, but that did not remove Coleman from the public eye...

NO DUTY OF CARE OWED

Posted on June 11, 2010
In a recently reported decision by the Superior Court of Justice, the Honourable Justice Newbould considered the issue of whether a solicitor who drafts a Power of Attorney owes a duty of care to the Grantee of the Power of Attorney. In Barbulov v. Huston, the defendant was the solicitor for the plaintiff's father...

Settlement and the ADR Process - Hull on Estates and Succession Planning #204

Posted on June 11, 2010
Listen to: Settlement and the ADR Process This week on Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, Ian and Suzana discuss settlement and the ADR process. This topic was spurred after the ILCO Conference in Quebec City that Ian and Suzana co-presented at...

Marketing an Estates Administration Practice

Posted on June 10, 2010
Certainly a firm's wills bank has traditionally been seen as a capital asset that generates work in the manner of files being opened both as estate solicitor and, oftentimes, executor. A recent e-bulletin released by Title Research elaborates on this basic premise to provide some interesting thoughts on the untapped marketing potential of an existing estates and trust practice...

A Most UN-Trivial Pursuit

Posted on June 09, 2010
On May 31st, 2010, Chris Haney, one of the co-creators of Trivial Pursuit, died in Toronto at the age of 59. While working as photo editor at the Montreal Gazette in the mid-70s, Haney met fellow journalist Scott Abbott. In December 1979, Haney and Abbott sat down at the kitchen table for a friendly game of Scrabble...

Trivial Pursuit Answer: Did You Get Your "Groove" On?

Posted on June 09, 2010
This morning's blog asked: How many grooves are there on one side of a 45 rpm record? Answer: There is one continuous groove on each side of a 45 rpm record. One song, one groove. Don't you just loathe trick questions? Jennifer Hartman, guest blogger

Solicitors Duty of Care -Hull on Estates #210

Posted on June 09, 2010
Listen to: Solicitors Duty of Care This week on Hull on Estates Paul Trudelle and Nadia Harasymowycz discuss a recent decision out of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Honourable Justice Newbould. This decision deals with the issues of powers of attorney and the role of a solicitor in drafting the power of attorney and the obligations and duties that the solicitor may have due to others...

Correcting a Will to No Avail

Posted on June 08, 2010
In a recently reported decision, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court tackled issues of will interpretation and whether a gift in a Will is void for offending public policy as enshrined by provincial Human Rights legislation...

Playing to Win

Posted on June 07, 2010
It is a simple fact that the vast majority of litigation settles before trial. Yet as litigation practitioners, we learn early on (notwithstanding these statistics) to approach each new case as though it is likely to go to trial. We therefore build a case always mindful that the threat of a successful result at trial may be what is required to procure the most advantageous settlement for the client...

Bring Some Awesome Into Your Life

Posted on June 04, 2010
A friend recently gave me a wonderful gift – 'The Book of Awesome'. Upon first glance, with its colourful cover and unusual font, I wasn't sure what to expect. After only several short 'Awesomes' I realised that this book is a gift that I will never forget...

LOST - In Real Life What Happens?

Posted on June 03, 2010
Whether you're a fan or not, it's hard to not have heard that LOST, the acclaimed television show about survivors of a plane crash, has recently celebrated its final episode. In the last few weeks, it seems like every channel was telling me about this event...

Twain Autobiography - Finally Published?

Posted on June 02, 2010
Imagine for a moment that you go back to read your diary entries from your 'Are you there God? Its me, Margaret' days. You think to yourself, ‘these are pretty good, maybe I should put them together and write my life story'. So you sit down, get to editing and write your autobiography...

Assisted Suicide - Hull on Estates #209

Posted on June 02, 2010
Listen to: Assisted Suicide – Hull on Estates #209 This week on Hull on Estates, Natalia Angelini and Kathryn Pilkington discuss the fairly controversial subject of assisted suicide and how it affects us from an estate standpoint...

Moving into a Virtual World - Getting Tech Savvy

Posted on June 01, 2010
Moving towards being more technologically inclined appears to be a theme that isn't only of interest to me. I can't imagine a world where a computer wasn't available to make last minute changes to a factum or where every letter I sent required several days of ‘snail mail' to arrive...

Doctor Shopping: A Primer

Posted on May 31, 2010
'Doctor shopping' is the practice of visiting numerous doctors, dentists, pharmacies and/or emergency rooms to fraudulently obtain prescriptions for non-medicinal use. Increasingly making headlines, doctor shopping is considered to be the most common means by which people addicted to prescription drugs get their hands on their drugs...

Stieg Larsson Estate

Posted on May 28, 2010
Stieg Larsson's latest book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, came out last week. Earlier, Diane Vieira blogged here on the estate of the best-selling author, who died in 2004. Diane noted that Larsson's common-law spouse of over 30 years received nothing from Larsson's estate...

Costs on a Cy-Pres Application

Posted on May 27, 2010
Yesterday, I discussed Fort Sackville Foundation v. Darby Estate, 2010 NSSC 27 (CanLII). Today, I will discuss the matter of the costs of the proceedings, reported at Fort Sackville Foundation v. Darby Estate, 2010 NSSC 45 (CanLII). The court had dismissed the application by the charity for a declaration that it was the successor charity, or that it was entitled to the bequest upon the application of the cy-pres doctrine...

More on Cy-Pres

Posted on May 26, 2010
John Darby died in 2008. In his July 2007 Will, he left his residence and contents to the 'Heritage Society of Bedford' [Nova Scotia] on specific conditions. The conditions included a requirement that the Society commit to retain his property and contents as a heritage property; a commitment to use the building to house a museum or some other specified uses; to make such commitments within 1 year; and to open the residence for the stipulated purposes within 3 years...

Royal LEGacies

Posted on May 25, 2010
In honour of Victoria Day, celebrated in Canada on the last Monday of May on or before May 24, and considered the first long weekend of the summer, I thought I would consider the terms of the last Will and Testament of Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria was born on May 24, 1819, and died on January 22, 1901...

21 Year Rule - Hull on Estates and Succession Planning - #203

Posted on May 25, 2010
Listen to: 21 Year Rule – Hull on Estates and Succession Planning - #203 This week on Hull on Estates and Succession Planning Ian continues the discussion surrounding different issues trust arrangements can bring about and solutions to these issues...

Rule of Pecore -Hull on Estates #208

Posted on May 25, 2010
Listen to:Rule of Pecore -Hull on Estates #208 This week on Hull on Estates, Chris Graham and David Smith revisit the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada and Pecore. This case considered the approach taken by Pecore. The following issues are examined: • Applying the presumption of resulting trusts to various fact scenarios...

Succession Planning for Lawyers

Posted on May 21, 2010
Estates lawyers are particularly good at advising others as to the importance of an air-tight succession plan. But when it comes to our own succession planning, there are special considerations that lawyers, or any professional, should take into account...

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