Wills, Trusts & Estates
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February 26, 2025
Balancing testator autonomy and dependent rights in B.C. estate law
In British Columbia, the Wills, Estates and Succession Act addresses a broad range of issues critical to estate planning, administration, and beneficiary rights. One significant concern in the Act is the balancing the rights of a testator to dispose of their estate as they see fit with the rights of dependent spouses and children to a fair portion of their loved one’s estate. Achieving that balance requires consideration of numerous factors, including a testator’s capacity to make a valid will, any suspicious circumstances surrounding its creation, and a legal dependent’s right to financial support.
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February 26, 2025
Women & 2SLGBTQI+ applicants came out ahead as ‘highly recommended’ for federal benches in 2023-2024
Asserting his new administration is “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,” U.S. President Donald Trump recently issued controversial executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion policies and hiring at the federal level in America. But in Canada, the most recent demographic statistics on federal judicial appointments and the professional competence and character assessments made by the Trudeau government’s non-partisan judicial advisory committees (JACs) indicate that diversity has gone hand in hand with “merit.”
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February 24, 2025
Get it in writing: Documenting a gifted right of survivorship
With the Supreme Court’s decision in Pecore v. Pecore, 2007 SCC 17 (Pecore), it became clear that joint tenants can have different types of beneficial interests in property. Not only is it possible to hold a full beneficial interest in the property, but a joint tenant may also hold only a right of survivorship, in which case all beneficial interest in the property is held in trust for the other joint tenant until that other tenant passes away.
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February 21, 2025
Canada opens door to more people impacted by Sudan’s civil conflict
Canada will resettle more refugees affected by the internal conflict in Sudan over the next two years and increase the spaces available under the family-based permanent residence pathway, the minority Liberal government says.
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February 21, 2025
Nova Scotia set to change laws for powers of attorney, substitute decision-makers
Nova Scotia has introduced a set of legislative amendments to clarify the role of a power of attorney, further safeguard the process of becoming a substitute decision-maker and modernize language on the state of the province’s unified family court.
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February 21, 2025
Seven criminal organizations listed as ‘terrorist entities’ subject to dealings, immigration bans
Canada has listed seven “transnational criminal organizations,” including street gangs and several major Mexican cartels that traffic in fentanyl, as “terrorist entities” under the Criminal Code — triggering immigration and dealings bans in Canada as well as expanding the tools law enforcement authorities have to trace and seize proceeds of crime, the federal government says.
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February 21, 2025
T-crossing, i-dotting: Prevent tax missteps via Evans et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada
In Evans et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada, 2024 ONSC 1955, the Ontario Superior Court addressed an application for the rectification of a resolution made by the trustee of the Evans Family Trust. The resolution, which was intended to allocate $375,000 of taxable capital gains to the beneficiaries, failed to clearly specify the allocation of these capital gains, resulting in unintended tax consequences.
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February 19, 2025
Accidental deaths have soared in past two decades, Statistics Canada reports
The number of accidental deaths in Canada more than doubled between 2000 and 2023, increasing 139 per cent to reach 8,631, according to Statistics Canada.
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February 19, 2025
The duty to account in trust reporting: A cautionary tale
Whether estate trustees or otherwise, all trustees have a duty to account to the beneficiaries on whose behalf a trust is being managed. That is to say, those vested with the power to manage property on behalf of others are obligated to provide to the beneficiaries an accounting of their dealings, particularly financial dealings, with the assets and liabilities of the trust or estate.
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February 14, 2025
Feds launch 2025 pre-budget consultations amid tariff uncertainty
The federal government has launched pre-budget consultations amid the looming threat of the U.S. potentially imposing tariffs on Canadian imports.