In November, estates and trusts practitioners met for the OBA’s monthly Brown Bag Lunch, ready to discuss a variety of interesting questions and practical scenarios.
The discussion for this month kicked off with one attendee asking for suggestions regarding a complicated file involving tax and estate planning for a client who owned US stocks. BBLers brainstormed and suggested some possible approaches for the attendee to investigate further.
Participants also discussed a couple of interesting recent decisions, one being the Leith v Eccles, 2024 ONSC 4769 decision previously discussed at the October meeting, and the second being Lang-Newlands v Newlands, 2024 ONSC 6285.
BBLers then moved onto a discussion about a scenario where a common law couple had been cohabiting but never filed tax returns indicating their common law status, and one spouse then died. One BBLer asked about the surviving spouse’s ability to access the deceased’s survivor’s pension. Attendees raised various considerations in this regard, and several were of the view that it may be a cost-benefit analysis for the surviving spouse to determine whether it would be better to walk away from the pension or take the risk of tax liability for previous years’ filings.
During the discussion above, some participants suggested making a voluntary disclosure under the CRA’s voluntary disclosure program. This led to some attendees sharing their experiences using the voluntary disclosure program.
Finally, one attendee asked about how others are dealing with co-op units for probate purposes. Some BBLers shared their views but there was not a clear consensus as it seems that not many of us have dealt with this kind of property.
The next Brown Bag Lunch meetings will be held on January 21, 2025 and February 18, 2025. If you would like to attend, please contact the moderator, Rebecca Kennedy at rkennedy@agbllp.com for Zoom information.
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