August 2025

The Letter of Wishes: A Personal Touch to your Estate Plan

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Today’s blog was written by Courtney Lanthier, Law Clerk at Fasken LLP. As estate planning legal professionals, we sometimes lose sight of how difficult and confusing reading a Will can be, often full of “legalese” and sentences that seem to go on forever. An executor reading the will may not fully grasp what it is they are meant to do and how to make the difficult decisions they are asked….

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Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills

When Private Foundations Die

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Pieter Claesz, “Vanitas Still Life” 1630. Private foundations are believed to be durable entities.  Perpetuity is often assumed at the planning stage.  Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) data shows, however, that 3,073 private foundations closed during the period 2000 to 2025. Growth in Private Foundations Private foundations have seen significant growth in Canada, with an increase in assets of over 300% in the last 20 years to over $100 billion in….

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Estate Donations, Estate Planning, Philanthropy/Charitable Giving

The Threshold of Decision-Making Capacity

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In my capacity evaluation work, my clients (who are mostly lawyers) occasionally suggest that if I have already assessed that a decision maker has testamentary capacity, then I need not evaluate whether the decision-maker has capacity to appoint a power of attorney (POA) for property.  The reasoning is that because the threshold for testamentary capacity is higher than any other legal decision-making activity, if the decision-maker has testamentary capacity, then….

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Uncategorized

To Validate or Not to Validate: That is the Question

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Today’s blog has been written by David C. Rosenbaum, Partner, at Fasken LLP Subsection 21.1(1) of the Succession Law Reform Act (SLRA) permits the Superior Court of Justice to validate a document or will that was not properly executed or made under the Act, if the deceased died after January 1, 2022, and the Court is satisfied that the document or will “sets out the testamentary intentions of a deceased”…..

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Succession Planning, Wills

Interlocutory Injunctions: A Reminder

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The recent case, Stewart Estate v Stewart, 2025 ONCA 575, provides guidance on the test for a stay pending appeal.  In Stewart, the deceased, William, executed a last will and testament (the “Will”) in 1989.  William died five years later.  He was survived by his wife, Edith, and their 13 children.  The Will gave a life estate to Edith, after which William’s two farms were to be transferred to his….

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Should your executor be paid to attend your funeral?

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Scotiatrust

This blog post was written by: Alicia Mossington, Estate and Trust Consultant, Scotiatrust London Estate trustees in Ontario are entitled to be compensated for their work in administering the estate. Understanding estate trustee (“executor”) compensation is important whether you are an executor or are considering who to appoint for your own estate.   In Ontario, non-professional executors generally calculate compensation by relying on the guideline of:  2.5% of income and….

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Compensation, Estate Administration, Executors, Family Conflict
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