Estate planning. Estate administration. Estate litigation.

With well over a century of experience, our firm is highly regarded in the Toronto and Ontario legal communities. We stay abreast of all developments in the law and practice of estates, wills and trusts through our enthusiastic participation in the Ontario Bar Association, continuing legal education offered by the Law Society of Upper Canada and affiliations with other professional associations.

Our firm is ready to assist at the planning stage of your estate. Many clients are well served with a will, power of attorney for personal care and power of attorney for property but, increasingly, more sophisticated planning is mandated through family trusts, estate freezes, conveyances of assets outside the estate, joint title deeds, designated beneficiaries under life insurance, shareholder agreements, and secondary jurisdiction wills.

We will work with your accountants and financial advisors to properly structure and document your intentions in life for after-death. We look at your entire picture to avoid unnecessary future litigation and taxation. We will do the work that is needed; not all the work that could be done.

Our lawyers have extensive experience acting as executors. As a result, we recognize and respond to the day-to-day practicalities of the administration of an estate. In appropriate circumstances, our lawyers represent a cost-effective alternative to traditional administrations by family members or institutions.

Our partners and associates provide counsel and representation on estates claims and disputes. We attract regular retainers in this area including:

• objections to applications for probate
• submission of rights on disputed probate
• waiver of bonding
• dependant’s relief applications under the Succession Law Act
• claims by disappointed family members
• quantum meruit claims
• protection of the interests of charitable beneficiaries
• testator mental capacity issues
• equalization claims under the Family Law Act
• executor replacements for incompetence or dishonesty
• distributions where there is no valid will (intestacy)
• appointments of estate trustees during litigation and litigation administrators, informal and formal passing of accounts
• solicitors’ negligence
• professional over-charging
• variations of trust under the Variation of Trusts Act
• interpretation of Wills and other testamentary instruments
• partition and sale of joint assets
• limitation periods

We would be honoured to act as your estate counsel.

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