So You’re Set to Receive an Inheritance: Here’s What to Do
Whether it's a sum of money, real estate, or investments, knowing how to manage your inheritance can help you make the most of it while avoiding unnecessary complications. Here’s what to do when you find out you're receiving an inheritance in Canada.
The Lowdown on Estate Executors: What, Why, and When
If you've been named an executor, you may wonder what your duties involve, why executors are necessary, and when these responsibilities begin. This guide breaks down the key aspects of the role to help you navigate the process effectively.
How to Avoid Drama with Beneficiaries in Estate Planning
As an executor, estate planner, or beneficiary yourself, knowing how to navigate potential conflicts can save time, money, and relationships. Here’s how to avoid drama with beneficiaries while ensuring a smooth estate administration process in Canada.
The Facts About Joint Accounts
Understanding how joint accounts work, their advantages and drawbacks, and their relevance to estate planning is crucial for making informed financial decisions in Canada.
What Is a Power of Attorney?
A Power of Attorney (POA) is a legal document that grants one person (the attorney) the authority to act on behalf of another person (the grantor) in financial, legal, or healthcare matters
What Nobody Tells You About Being an Estate Executor
Being named an estate executor can seem like an honor, but few people realize the full extent of the responsibilities involved. It’s not just about distributing assets—it’s a complex legal and financial role that can come with personal liability, disputes, and time-consuming tasks.
What is a Digital Vault?
A digital vault is a secure online storage system designed to protect important documents, sensitive information, and financial records from unauthorized access, loss, or cyber threats.
How and Where to Store Important Paperwork
Whether it’s birth certificates, wills, or property deeds, knowing where and how to store these items can save time, prevent loss, and provide peace of mind. This guide outlines the best storage solutions for your critical paperwork.
How Prepaying for Your Funeral Arrangements Can Save You Thousands
Prepaying for your funeral arrangements allows you to lock in today’s prices, avoid inflation, and ensure your wishes are met without last-minute stress for your family. Here’s why preplanning and prepaying for your funeral is a smart financial decision.
Passwords: Where to Keep Them
Whether for personal use or estate planning, having a secure method for password storage prevents data breaches and ensures your accounts remain accessible in critical situations.
The Ultimate Estate Planning Checklist
Proper estate planning can help minimize taxes, avoid legal complications, and provide financial security for your beneficiaries. This guide covers all essential steps for creating a solid estate plan in Canada.
How to Prepare Your Executor
Choosing an estate executor is a crucial part of estate planning, but preparation does not stop there. To ensure a smooth administration process, it is essential to equip your executor with the necessary information, legal authority, and organizational tools before they need to act.
How to Choose an Executor
The executor is responsible for managing your assets, paying debts, and ensuring your final wishes are carried out. Selecting the right person is essential to ensuring a smooth estate administration process.
Assigning Children Different Roles in End-of-Life Planning: A Thoughtful Guide for Parents
When planning for end-of-life care and estate administration, many parents face the delicate task of assigning different responsibilities to their children. This guide will help you think through this process thoughtfully while maintaining family harmony.
How to Talk to Your Children About Your Will: A Compassionate Guide for Parents
Discussing your will with your children represents one of the most important conversations you'll have with them, yet many parents find it challenging to start this discussion. Let's explore how to navigate these essential family discussions with sensitivity and clarity.
Do You Need a Lawyer for Estate Planning? A Complete Guide to Making This Important Decision
Estate planning represents a crucial step in protecting your family's future, but determining whether you need professional legal help isn't always straightforward. Let's explore how to evaluate your situation and make an informed decision about seeking legal help.
Living Trusts vs. Wills in Canada: A Provincial Guide to Understanding Your Options
Understanding the differences between wills and living trusts in Canada is essential for effective estate planning. Unlike other countries, particularly the United States, Canada's legal framework treats these instruments differently.
Why Your Will May Not Be Bulletproof in Canada: A Comprehensive Guide
Understanding potential vulnerabilities helps you take proactive steps to strengthen your estate planning and protect your wishes. This guide explores why wills might not be as ironclad as people assume and what you can do to reinforce them.
A Complete Guide to Funding Your Living Trust in Canada: Step-by-Step Instructions
Creating a living trust represents only the first step in your estate planning journey. For your trust to work effectively, you must properly fund it by transferring assets into the trust's ownership.
Creating an Endowment in the United States: Building Lasting Impact
Imagine creating a gift that keeps on giving - forever. That's the power of an endowment. Whether you're passionate about education, healthcare, the arts, or community service, an endowment can transform your one-time gift into perpetual support for causes you care about.
Understanding the Role of an Attorney for Personal and Health Care: A Comprehensive Guide
This guide explores the essential duties involved in serving as an attorney for personal and health matters, a role that requires both compassion and careful attention to detail.
Advance Care Plans vs. Living Wills in Canada: Understanding the Key Differences
The terms "advance care plan" and "living will" are often used interchangeably in Canada, but there are important distinctions between these two healthcare planning documents. Let’s explore how these documents work within the Canadian healthcare system and why you might need one or both.
Understanding Advance Care Planning in Ontario: A Guide to Making Your Healthcare Wishes Known
In Ontario, planning for future healthcare decisions involves creating a Power of Attorney for Personal Care (POAPC). While it might seem daunting, understanding your options helps ensure your future care aligns with your values and wishes.
Revocable Living Trusts in Canada: A Comprehensive Guide to Estate Planning
This comprehensive guide will explore how revocable living trusts function within the Canadian legal framework, their advantages and limitations, and how they compare to other estate planning options across different provinces.
Advance Directives in Canada: Protecting Your Healthcare Wishes
In Canada, advance care plans (also called personal directives or healthcare plans) provide a way to ensure your healthcare wishes are known and respected if you become unable to speak for yourself.
Creating Your Educational Legacy: A Guide to Memorial Scholarships in the United States
Setting up a memorial scholarship allows you to support students long after you're gone while creating a legacy that reflects your values and passions.
Understanding Advance Care Planning in Alberta: Your Guide to Future Healthcare Planning
In Alberta, planning for future healthcare decisions revolves around creating an Advance Care Plan. Unlike some provinces, Alberta has developed a system that allows you to document your wishes and appoint someone to make decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do so.
The Art of Legacy Letters: Writing Messages That Matter
There's something deeply powerful about written words that outlive us. Legacy letters—sometimes called "ethical wills" or "life letters"—offer a way to share your values, hopes, and life lessons with future generations.
Understanding Organ Donation in Canada: A Provincial Guide
This comprehensive guide will help you understand how organ donation works in your region and how you can help save lives through this vital program.
Types of Assets You Can Leave Behind: A Guide to US and Canadian Inheritance Options
When planning your legacy, you have multiple options for how to structure inheritances. Understanding these choices can help you make tax-efficient decisions that benefit your heirs while fulfilling your wishes.
Cleaning Out Your Emotional Attic: Managing Personal Secrets and Digital Legacy
We spend considerable time planning how to distribute our material possessions, but what about our secrets, private information, and digital footprint? In today's world of DNA testing, digital records, and social media, managing our personal legacy requires careful consideration and planning.
How to Leave Your Story: A Complete Guide to Preserving Your Life's Journey
Your life story is unique and irreplaceable. Every experience, triumph, challenge, and lesson creates the tapestry of who you are. This comprehensive guide will explore the many ways to document and share your personal history.
Communicating Your End-of-Life Care Wishes in Canada: A Comprehensive Guide
This guide will help you effectively communicate your end-of-life care wishes within the Canadian healthcare system.
Making a Will Online in Canada: Understanding When It's Suitable and When It's Not
Creating a will online has become increasingly popular in Canada, offering a potentially convenient and cost-effective option for estate planning. Understanding when an online will makes sense – and when it doesn't – helps you make an informed decision about your estate planning approach.
Guide to Handling Overseas Bank Accounts and International Assets for Canadians
This comprehensive guide explores how Canadians can manage overseas bank accounts and international assets, focusing on tax implications, legal considerations, and effective strategies.
Guide to Estate Planning for Parents of Children with Special Needs in Canada
Planning for the future is an essential part of being a parent, especially when you have a child with special needs. This guide will walk you through key aspects of estate planning, providing you with actionable steps and resources.
Estate Planning for Blended Families in Canada: Balancing Competing Interests
In this guide, we explore the key considerations and strategies for effective estate planning for blended families in Canada, with links to helpful resources.
Planning Your Estate When You Have No Children: Alternative Legacy Options in Canada
This guide explores alternative legacy options in Canada for those without children, offering actionable strategies and links to valuable resources.
Creating a Digital Estate Plan: Managing Your Online Legacy
In this guide, we’ll explore how to create a comprehensive digital estate plan to secure your online legacy.
Cryptocurrency and NFTs in Estate Planning: A Modern Guide for Canadians
This guide explores how Canadians can integrate cryptocurrencies and NFTs into their estate plans, providing actionable advice and links to valuable resources.
Estate Planning for Small Business Owners: A Canadian Guide
This guide explores estate planning strategies tailored to small business owners in Canada, including key considerations, actionable steps, and links to valuable resources.
Family Business Succession: Transitioning to the Next Generation in Canada
Family businesses play a critical role in Canada’s economy, contributing significantly to employment and economic growth. However, ensuring these businesses successfully transition from one generation to the next is a complex and often emotionally charged process.
Cross-Border Estate Planning: Considerations for Canadians with US Assets
This guide explores the key considerations for Canadians involved in cross-border estate planning, providing actionable strategies and links to resources for effective management.
Estate Planning for Canadian Ex-Pats: Managing International Assets
As Canadian ex-pats, you may own assets across multiple countries, creating unique complexities in estate planning. This guide explores the critical steps and strategies for managing international assets effectively.
Green Legacy Planning: Environmentally Conscious Estate Options
This guide explores various green estate planning options, strategies, and actionable steps to create an estate plan aligned with your eco-friendly values.
Holiday Property Planning: Managing Vacation Homes in Your Estate
This guide outlines the essential considerations and strategies for including vacation homes in your estate plan.
Creating an Ethical Will: Passing Down Your Values and Life Lessons
An ethical will is a unique and deeply personal document that allows you to share your values, beliefs, and life lessons with loved ones. Unlike a legal will, which focuses on distributing assets, an ethical will captures your wisdom, aspirations, and hopes for future generations.
Pet Trust Planning: Ensuring Care for Your Animals After You're Gone in Canada
This guide provides an overview of pet trusts, legal considerations, and actionable steps for Canadian pet owners.
Understanding RESPs in Estate Planning: Educational Legacy Options
This guide explores how RESPs work, their role in estate planning, and strategies for maximizing their value as an educational legacy.
Charitable Remainder Trusts: Advanced Legacy Planning in Canada
This guide provides a detailed overview of CRTs, their benefits, and how they fit into advanced legacy planning in Canada.
Life Insurance Trusts: Strategic Estate Planning Tools in Canada
This guide explores how life insurance trusts work, their benefits, and how they fit into strategic estate planning in Canada.
Indigenous Estate Planning in Canada: Traditional Values and Modern Law
This guide explores the intersection of traditional values and modern law in Indigenous estate planning and provides actionable steps to create an effective plan.
Religious Considerations in Estate Planning in Canada
This guide explores the integration of religious principles into estate planning within the Canadian legal framework.
Cultural Traditions and Estate Planning: Honoring Heritage
This guide explores how cultural traditions can be integrated into estate planning, ensuring that personal and familial heritage is respected and preserved.
How to Host a Family Estate Planning Meeting
This guide will walk you through the steps to plan, organize, and host an effective family estate planning meeting.
Discussing Inheritance with Adult Children: A Practical Guide
Talking about inheritance can be a challenging yet necessary conversation for families. For many, the topic is fraught with emotional, financial, and interpersonal complexities. This guide provides actionable steps and strategies to navigate these discussions effectively and sensitively.
Managing Family Expectations in Estate Distribution
This guide explores strategies for navigating family dynamics, communicating your decisions, and mitigating potential disputes when planning and executing estate distribution.
Handling Intellectual Property Rights in Estate Planning
This guide explores the importance of incorporating intellectual property into estate planning, the challenges involved, and actionable steps to handle these rights effectively.
Estate Planning in the Age of Longevity in Canada
This guide explores the implications of longevity on estate planning and provides actionable strategies to ensure your financial and personal legacy aligns with your long-term goals.
Planning for Climate Change: Protecting Assets and Legacy
This guide explores strategies to protect your assets and plan for the lasting impact of climate change while ensuring your legacy reflects values of sustainability and stewardship.
Mental Capacity and Estate Planning: Modern Medical Considerations in Canada
This guide explores the intersection of mental capacity and estate planning, outlining key considerations, legal standards, and practical strategies for Canadians.
Family Discussion and Estate Planning Checklist: Ensuring Clear Communication with Loved Ones
Discussing estate plans with family can feel challenging, yet clear communication often prevents future complications and misunderstandings. Let's explore essential questions to ensure your family understands your wishes and can execute them properly.
Creating Your Educational Legacy: A Guide to Setting Up a Memorial Scholarship in Canada
One of the most meaningful ways to create a lasting impact is by helping future generations achieve their educational dreams. Setting up a memorial scholarship allows you to support students long after you're gone while creating a legacy that reflects your values and passions.
Your Guide to Creating an Endowment in Canada: Building a Perpetual Legacy
Creating an endowment is like planting a tree that will provide shade for generations to come. Whether you're passionate about education, healthcare, the arts, or community development, an endowment can ensure your chosen cause receives ongoing support long after you're gone.
Understanding Donor Advised Funds in Canada: A Guide to Flexible Charitable Giving
Think of a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) as your personal charitable giving account. It offers the benefits of a private foundation without the administrative complexity. For many Canadians, DAFs provide an ideal middle ground between direct charitable giving and creating a private foundation.
Creating a Living Legacy: Meaningful Ways to Be Remembered Beyond Money
The most precious legacies often can't be measured in dollars and cents. While financial planning is important, the stories, traditions, and personal treasures we leave behind often carry far more meaning for future generations.
Understanding the Role of a Substitute Decision-Maker in Canada: A Provincial Guide
In Canada, the person appointed to make healthcare decisions on behalf of someone who has become incapable is known as a substitute decision-maker (SDM). Understanding this role and its provincial variations helps ensure proper planning and execution of healthcare wishes.
Comprehensive Estate Planning Checklist: A Canadian Guide to Protecting Your Legacy
This comprehensive guide will help you assess and organize every aspect of your estate plan, using a methodical approach to this complex but crucial task.
Creating Your End-of-Life File: A Canadian Guide to Document Organization
Creating a centralized file of important documents and information isn't just about convenience—it's about caring for those we'll leave behind. In the Canadian context, where healthcare systems and legal requirements vary by province, having organized documentation becomes even more crucial.
Advance Care Planning in Canada's North: A Guide for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon
Planning for future healthcare decisions takes on special meaning in Canada's northern territories. Distance from major medical centers, traditional Indigenous practices, and close-knit communities all shape how we approach advance care planning in the North.
Preserving Your Life Story: A Guide to Professional Story Capture Services
Whether through written memoirs, video biographies, or audio recordings, these services help ensure your story endures for future generations.
Creating Your End-of-Life File: An American Guide to Organizing Important Documents
This comprehensive guide will help you create your own "When I Die" file, ensuring nothing important is overlooked.
Understanding the Role of an Attorney for Financial Matters: A Comprehensive Guide
When someone becomes unable to manage their own financial affairs, their appointed power of attorney steps in to make decisions on their behalf. This crucial role carries significant responsibilities and requires careful attention to detail.
Questions to Consider When Reviewing Your Estate Plan: A Reflection Guide
This guide provides essential questions to help you reflect on whether your current estate plan still aligns with your values and intentions.
Understanding Substitute Decision Makers: A Canadian Guide to Healthcare Planning
When it comes to healthcare decisions in Canada, having proper documentation isn't always sufficient. This guide explores how to protect both your wishes and the person you've chosen to speak for you when you cannot.
Advance Care Planning in Atlantic Canada: A Guide for Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island
Whether you live in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island, planning for future healthcare decisions helps ensure your wishes are respected.
Advance Care Planning in British Columbia: Understanding Your Options
British Columbia offers unique flexibility in advance care planning through its layered approach. Unlike other provinces, BC residents can choose between several tools: Representation Agreements, Advance Directives, and Enduring Powers of Attorney.
Health Care Directives in Manitoba: Planning for Your Future Care
In Manitoba, planning for future healthcare decisions centers around creating a Health Care Directive, sometimes called a living will. This straightforward system helps ensure your healthcare wishes are known and respected if you become unable to speak for yourself.
A Complete Guide to Bequeathing Assets in the United States: Creating Your Legacy
Estate planning in the United States comes with its own unique set of rules and opportunities. While the process might seem daunting, understanding the basics can help you create a plan that protects your legacy and your loved ones.
Understanding Durable Power of Attorney in Canada: A Complete Provincial Guide
When planning for the future, one of the most crucial legal documents you can create is a durable power of attorney (POA). This powerful legal tool ensures that your financial and personal affairs continue to be managed effectively if you become unable to handle them yourself.
The Complete Guide to Creating a Living Will in Canada: Provincial Requirements and Step-by-Step Instructions
Creating a living will, also known as an advance directive or personal directive in some provinces, is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your healthcare wishes are respected if you become unable to communicate them.
Advance Care Planning in Quebec: Understanding Protection Mandates and Advance Medical Directives
Ensure your wishes are honored in Quebec with clear advance care planning. Understand Protection Mandates and Advance Medical Directives, and learn how to create legally binding documents that safeguard your future.
Family Heirlooms: A Modern Guide to Preserving, Passing Down, or Letting Go
This guide explores how to preserve family legacy beyond just the physical objects, focusing on the stories and memories they represent. Discover creative solutions like digital preservation, respectful selling options, and ways to honor your heritage without cluttering your home.
The Ultimate Guide to Clearing Your Attic: Making Peace with Your Possessions
Are your children really going to want your entire collection of antique teacups? Today's generations often prioritize experiences over possessions. Learn how to declutter effectively, identify truly valuable items, and ensure your legacy lives on in meaningful ways.
Joint Accounts: Why Adding Your Partner Now Can Prevent Financial Hardship Later
Don't let financial stress compound the grief of losing a loved one. Discover the importance of joint accounts in ensuring a seamless transition and protecting your family's future.
Handling a Canadian's Death in Mexico: A Guide for Family and Friends
For many Canadians, Mexico represents a beautiful destination for retirement or a fresh start in their careers. However, as with any major life decision, it's crucial to consider all aspects of living abroad, including the possibility of passing away in your adopted country.
Airline Rewards After a Loved One's Death: A Guide for Cancelling or Transferring for Canadians
If your loved one had accrued airline rewards in Canada, it's essential to understand how to handle them properly to prevent any unnecessary fees and ensure that their benefits are managed appropriately.
Estate Planning: The Dos & Don'ts
Death is a certainty, but planning for it doesn't have to be a daunting task. Estate planning is a comprehensive strategy to ensure your assets and wishes are handled according to your desires after you die, minimizing confusion and hardship for your loved ones.
The Importance of Estate Planning: Securing Your Legacy, Protecting Your Loved Ones
Estate planning is often an afterthought. However, it is a crucial aspect of financial security, ensuring your wishes are carried out and your loved ones are protected after your death.
Legal Ease: Understanding Power of Attorney and Advance Directives
Legal documentation like powers of attorney and advance directives allow your loved one to proactively appoint someone to uphold their values and best interests when they no longer can. Learn more about legal documents you should understand as a caregiver in the United States or Canada.
Navigating Taxes and the Estate Process in the US
The passing of a loved one brings a mix of emotions and practical obligations, including dealing with taxes. While the US has no federal inheritance tax for beneficiaries, several types of taxes can still apply. Learn more.
Death and Taxes in Canada: A Guide to Taxes After Death
When a loved one passes away in Canada, navigating grief is compounded by the need to handle their estate. This comprehensive guide explores the various taxes that may arise upon death in Canada and offers tips for navigating the process.
Secure Your Journey: Why Funeral Preplan Protection Before Travel Is Essential
Planning for the unexpected is crucial when traveling. Discover how funeral preplan protection offers financial security and support in case of death while away from home. Learn about the benefits of Journey Home and why it's important to purchase it before you travel.
Talking to Your Kids About Your Will: A Guide for Parents
Discussing your will with your children can be difficult, but it's essential for their future well-being. This guide provides practical advice on how to approach the conversation and ensure your wishes are understood.
Why You Need a Will [Even if You Think You Don’t]
This blog explains why everyone should have a will and how having a will eases the burden on your family.
How to Preplan a Funeral and Provide Peace of Mind For Your Children
This guide explains how to preplan for the end of life. Learn how to ensure your wishes are considered and to provide your family with peace of mind.
