Acting as (Unofficial) Attorney for Property

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Power of attorney (“POA”) documents are a way of officially granting an agent (the “attorney”) the power to manage your affairs, most commonly your finances or personal care. POAs allow the attorney to step in and handle a wide variety of issues on your behalf, whether you (the “grantor”) anticipated those issues arising or not. While acting pursuant to a POA, the attorney owes you a “fiduciary duty,” which means….

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Attorney Compensation, Compensation, Power of Attorney, Trustee Compensation

U. S. Estate Tax Closing Letter

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Canadian taxpayers are accustomed to receiving a notice of assessment after filing a tax return. In the federal context, a Notice of Assessment, is a statement from the Canada Revenue Agency notifying the taxpayer of among other items the amount of tax they owe, if any, the amount of tax already paid, if any, and tax credits received.

What if that return was a U. S. estate tax return to report an interest in U. S. situs property?….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Estate Planning, Trustee, United States

Dec 1= Winter is Coming

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It is getting to be that time again and holidays are around the corner. Do your parents live in another city than you? For many the holiday period is a time when families are spending extended periods of togetherness, which can be both wonderful and challenging. If this is the case, this provides a wonderful opportunity to see how they are managing. It is hard for many of us as….

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Elder Care, Family Conflict

The Virtual Estate

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Digital assets was an interesting topic of conversation at this month’s OBA Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) session. Digital assets usually refer to virtual or intangible assets and can range from blogs to Air Miles to online accounts (i.e. financial, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), to online gaming assets such as in virtual life games.  In 2013, a McAfee survey reported that Canadian consumers estimate the value of their digital assets at being….

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Estate Planning

I will survive, then again, you may survive

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 A testator should, for the most part, be able to read and comprehend the terms of his or her Will. Yet even a Will drafted in so called “plain English” may contain a couple of terms or phrases (“issue”, “per stirpes”, “in specie”) with special meaning and/or not used in everyday discourse. Likewise most well-drafted Wills contain a number of clauses the purpose or meaning of which may not be….

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Estate Planning
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