September marked the beginning of a new term for the Ontario Bar Association. With the new term comes a new series of Brown Bag Lunch meetings for the Trusts and Estates section.
This month’s meeting kicked off with an interesting issue that some estate planning lawyers have been dealing with in relation to powers of attorney. Some attendees shared that they have recently been receiving correspondence from financial institutions asking them to confirm a power of attorney that has been presented to the bank. If the question arose as a concern about fraud, some BBLers would be comfortable confirming that they did indeed have a file for that person and had attended to the execution of the power of attorney. However, in some cases the banks appeared to be asking the lawyer to opine on the validity of the power of attorney. It seemed to attendees that in making these requests the banks may be attempting to offload some of their liability, and most BBL’ers present were not comfortable providing any kind of opinion or assurances relating to the validity of the power of attorney.
Next up, participants discussed the new First Home Savings Account, and the making of a beneficiary designation in respect of such accounts. Some attendees shared that they are aware of banks offering the ability to name a beneficiary for a First Home Savings Account, despite there not being any legislation allowing for beneficiary designations in this regard or making it clear that the account would not be an estate asset if there was a designated beneficiary. It was noted that the banks may be operating on the basis that the government of Ontario will eventually address this and retroactively validate those beneficiary designations already made.
The meeting continued with a discussion amongst attendees regarding their considerations and approaches relating to alter ego trusts and the new inclusion rate for capital gains tax. Lastly, participants shared tips and advice about drafting a lifetime benefit trust.
Brown Bag Lunch meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month, and the full schedule for the 2024-2025 term can be found here. If you would like to attend, please contact the moderator, Rebecca Kennedy at rkennedy@agbllp.com, for Zoom information.
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