Estate Planning

We offer comprehensive estate planning designed to meet your wishes and goals while protecting your legacy and reducing your estate's probate tax.

Our comprehensive estate planning session will begin with working with you to assess your assets and your needs with regard to your estate. We will ask you about your preferences and life goals, and then advise you on your options. Examples of the areas that will be discussed in the consultation may include appointing an executor of your estate, appointing a guardian of minor children, and succession planning for entrepreneurs and family businesses, including corporate reorganizations and shareholder agreements. You may also wish to make special provisions for the transfer of your estate to a common-law partner.

Sometimes, clients want to make provisions for a disabled child or spouse through the creation of a testamentary trust such as a spousal trust or a Henson trust. We can assist you in drafting trusts and developing an estate plan that meets your goals.

It is not unusual for people to confuse estate planning and financial planning. Both offer a valuable way to organize assets, plan for the future, and create financial peace of mind. However, there are important differences. Financial planning involves assessing a client's financial goals and making decisions about how to grow wealth to create more financial freedom and to meet personal and business financial goals.

In contrast, estate planning involves managing wealth once it has been accumulated, protecting it, and making the right plan to distribute assets at the appropriate time and to the desired people. In addition, estate planning deals with more than just financial assets, and often includes discussion of who shall make health care and financial decisions for you if you are unable to make them yourself, who will care for your pets, a detailed plan for your medical care if you become ill or near the end of your life, and the type of legacy you wish to pass on to future generations. 

You have worked hard to build your wealth and success. Let us help you create a customized estate plan to protect your legacy, your family, and the future of your business!

Our comprehensive estate planning services may include:

• Last Will and Testament drafting, including public (probatable) and private (non-probatable) Will documents for reducing estate administration probate tax

• Powers of Attorney for Personal Care (often referred to as a “living will” or a “personal care directive”)

• Powers of Attorney for Property

• Succession planning for entrepreneurs and family businesses, including corporate reorganizations and shareholder agreements

• Estate planning including provisions providing for the transfer of the family cottage

• Administration and variation of trusts

• Family trusts and inter vivos dispositions

• Spousal testamentary trusts

• Life testamentary trusts

• Henson testamentary trusts (specially designed for disabled beneficiaries to minimize their loss of government benefits)

• Minimization of income and capital gains tax

• Tax shelters

• Intergenerational transfers of family wealth

• Assisting estate trustees with all aspects of estate administration including obtaining probate and preparation of documentation

• Life and estate management services

• Same-sex couples’ estate planning

What should you look for in an estate planning lawyer?

A general practitioner may not have the experience and specialized knowledge to assist you with your unique situation. You should retain a Kitchener estate planning lawyer who devotes his or her practise to this area of law. We have over 40 years of experience in estate planning, and have developed specialized skills in this area.

ThreeBestRated continuously rates our firm as one of the top three estate planning lawyers for the City of Kitchener.

Divorce Angels highly recommends our estate planning services as a vetted professional for those going through the uncertainty of a divorce.

Community Votes Kitchener-Waterloo awarded our firm Gold for Estate Lawyers.

Estate Planning Checklist: What should you consider when entering into estate planning?

When we initially meet with clients to discuss estate planning, we often request that our clients think about the following considerations:

• Does your current estate plan effectively provide for an orderly disposition of your estate to all of your intended beneficiaries?
• Have you prearranged your funeral?
• Have you considered making gifts during your lifetime to minimize probate fees?
• Have you appointed beneficiaries on savings and investments such as tax-free savings accounts, RRSPs, RRIFs, and other investments in order to minimize probate fees?
• Have you designated your life insurance benefits payable directly to your beneficiaries?
• Have you confirmed your intentions with regard to jointly owned property such as real estate, bank accounts, and investments in order to ensure that you have established clear ownership rights?
• Have you considered creating a trust for your spouse or children that can help you realize tax advantages or preserve assets such as an interest in a business, matrimonial home, or family cottage?
• Do you have a plan to reduce or defer taxes that may become payable after your death?

If you have answered negatively to any of these considerations, you would benefit from meeting with one of our lawyers to discuss updating your current estate plan.

Estate planning for the LGBTQ2S+ community.

We offer comprehensive estate planning for the LGBTQ2S+ community. If you are in a same-sex relationship and require specialized assistance in ensuring that you have adequately provided for your spouse or partner upon your death, we invite you to contact a lawyer from our Kitchener law firm for knowledgeable legal advice and assistance.

Same-sex couples in a common-law relationship and those same-sex spouses who are married face unique challenges and concerns when preparing Wills and Powers of Attorney in order to transfer assets to each other without unforeseen complications and at the lowest possible tax rate. We have experience in assisting transgender, nonbinary, and genderqueer clients in creating estate plans that transfer legacies in a way that energizes, motivates and creates opportunities for chosen beneficiaries.

We are proud to be the law firm of choice for the LGBTQ2S+ community in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. We offer a safe and inclusive environment to discuss your estate planning goals.