The following is an effort to provide a non-exhaustivelist in the most basic and summary of fashions of the laws that apply to custody and access in Ontario. The primary principle, the primary directive if you wish, is incorporated in section 24 of the Children’s Law Reform Act, the best interest of the child. Joint […]
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Rest Easy – Multiple Wills Are Just Fine
Faithful readers of this blog will be aware of the earlier decision of Justice Dunphy of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, who held as a result of a “basket clause” found in a standard precedent for Primary and Secondary Wills that the Secondary Will was invalid. All one needs to know is that as […]
Read MoreEstate Complications with Estate Trustees
Sometimes, third parties who are not related to the deceased may be appointed by the court as an estate trustee. It has been our experience in highly contested estates when competing parties will not agree on permitting the other acting as estate trustee, the court has the ability to appoint a third party. On consent, […]
Read MoreBenjamin Orders
What is an estate to do when a beneficiary cannot be found. While relatively rare, this does occur and it has been the author’s experience that in the absence of specific instructions in the will, this can lead to significant costs. There are specialized beneficiary hunters and as one can imagine they are not cheap. […]
Read MoreWhat to do when the bad son will not Move out after mom dies
We now look at Justice Spiescomments in the 2017 decision relating to the Filippelli estate. In this case, one child lived with mom for two years prior to her death. There was a very loose and rarely observed understanding that the son living with the mother would pay some type of rent. The son rarely […]
Read MoreBeneficiaries Gone Wild
Justice Spies, whose decisions have surfaced in this blog repeatedly,grappled with a group of siblings who suffered delusions as they fought over a $30,000.00 painting. I make no comment about the reasonableness of destroying a sibling relationship for mere money. In the Newlands decision, the court had earlier found that one brother’s position with respect […]
Read MoreParental Alienation Reconciliation Counseling
The law is influx on this point. The author would not be surprised if within a year that the courts’ views will shift again. The courts continue to throw a substantive resources at a problem that defies solution, namely the alienation between child and parent following separation. When the whole of a family is torn […]
Read MoreCapital Reserve and its effect on determining Income for Support Purposes
A capital reserve can be described as a portion of a businesses’ capital/income that is needed to sustain the business itself and is not available for the purpose of funding support. This is touched upon in both Section 12 and Section 18 of the Child Support Guidelines. As readers of this blog are aware, the […]
Read MoreA Strategy to Reduce or Eliminate Probate Fees.
HOW TO USE A TRUST TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN PROBATE FEES. This strategy is driven by 2 primary goals. To arrange for an orderly estate succession (what happens after you die) and minimize estate administration tax, also known as probate fees. An additional benefit can be a reduction in exposure to potential creditors. […]
Read MoreChanges to Divorce Act Proposed – No More Custody
On May 22, 2018 the Federal Government introduced Bill C-78. It’s most important provision is removing the term “Custody” and “Access” from a court order replacing them with “Parenting Orders” in which parenting time and decision making is allocated between the parents. As always, the only factor for the court to take into account is […]
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