Estate Administration

Total 493 Posts

Unclaimed Bodies and Setting Things Right

Unhappily, it is not uncommon for family members to be at loggerheads as to who controls the body of a loved one and whether the body should be cremated or buried. I previously blogged on the 2018 case Miller v. Miller, a decision by Justice Myers of the ONSC, which dealt with this issue. In summary, the estate trustee has the authority to make funeral and burial arrangements. Nevertheless, fights….

Unclaimed Bodies and Setting Things Right Continue Reading »

Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, Executors, Family Conflict, Funeral Planning

TFSA’s and Survivor Payments: Impact of Fair Market Value.

In this space, sometime ago, a fellow blogger wrote about how survivor payments made out of a deceased’s tax free savings account (TFSA)  to the deceased’s spouse TFSA would qualify as an “exempt contribution” (i.e. the contribution room in the surviving spouse’s TFSA would not be affected by the addition of these funds), even if the spouse was not designated beneficiary of the TFSA. What are the implications to the….

TFSA’s and Survivor Payments: Impact of Fair Market Value. Continue Reading »

Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Investments, Property, Tax Issues, Uncategorized, Wills

Locating Unknown or Missing Heirs to an Estate

How should an estate trustee proceed when they cannot identify or locate all of the heirs to an estate? In some cases, a challenge arises where a will does not identify the beneficiaries by name, but by class or some other description. For example, a will may leave the residue of the estate to the testator’s “nieces and nephews” without specifically naming them. Where a deceased died without a will,….

Locating Unknown or Missing Heirs to an Estate Continue Reading »

Contested wills, Courts, Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, Executors, Family Conflict

ON A PAPER NAPKIN, DID YOU SAY?

The Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan was recently asked (in the case of Gust vs. Langan et al., 2020 SKQB 42) whether a will handwritten on a paper napkin created by the deceased sometime before his death met the requirements of being a valid will under the relevant Act to permit it to be accepted as a valid holograph will.  The Court had to decide whether the will met the test….

ON A PAPER NAPKIN, DID YOU SAY? Continue Reading »

Contested wills, Courts, Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Family Conflict, Property, Wills

The Effect that Covid-19 is having on Administering Estates

Today’s blog is being brought to you by guest blogger, Jennifer Campbell, a law clerk in the Private Client Services group of Fasken LLP. I, like many of my colleagues, have been working from home for what feels like an eternity now.  While I’m used to working remotely a couple of days a week, I don’t have to convince others who are now working remotely five days a week that….

The Effect that Covid-19 is having on Administering Estates Continue Reading »

Estate Administration
Scroll to Top