Keith Masterman News Today

While audits are uncommon, rules introduced in 2015 ensure stringent reporting of assets

Rudy MezzettaMelissa Shin In Ontario, virtual will witnessing is now permanent, courts will be able to save invalid wills and marriage no longer automatically revokes a will. The province’s estate law reform hit a major milestone with the royal assent of Bill 245 last month. The omnibus bill, first tabled in February, includes changes to the acts governing wills, powers of attorney and intestacy. The updated legislation “better reflects the realities of life in the 2020s” and “has the p...

Rudy MezzettaMelissa Shin In Ontario, virtual will witnessing is now permanent, courts will be able to save invalid wills and marriage no longer automatically revokes a will. The province’s estate law reform hit a major milestone with the royal assent of Bill 245 last month. The omnibus bill, first tabled in February, includes changes to the acts governing wills, powers of attorney and intestacy. The updated legislation “better reflects the realities of life in the 2020s” and “has the p...

Rudy Mezzetta Estate practitioners are applauding an Ontario government proposal to provide courts with the power to save wills that might otherwise be found invalid due to technical errors — a power that already exists in the majority of Canadian jurisdictions. When a will is deemed invalid, estate property is distributed according to the intestacy rules found in a province’s estate act, rather than as the deceased may have intended. In all provinces except Ontario and Newfoundland and Lab...

Rudy Mezzetta Estate practitioners are applauding an Ontario government proposal to provide courts with the power to save wills that might otherwise be found invalid due to technical errors — a power that already exists in the majority of Canadian jurisdictions. When a will is deemed invalid, estate property is distributed according to the intestacy rules found in a province’s estate act, rather than as the deceased may have intended. In all provinces except Ontario and Newfoundland and Lab...

Change takes effect April 1

Small estates can access a simplified probate process