The Benefits of Having a Wills and Estate Plan

image source: Giordano, DelCollo, Werb & Gagne, LLC

A wills and estate plan is an important part of financial planning. Everyone needs to have one, even if you are not a wealthy individual with millions in assets, as it will help protect your family in the event that you die or become incapacitated and can no longer make decisions.

A basic wills and estate plan provides many advantages, including the following:

Avoid probate court

Ending up in probate court is an expensive process. A vast majority of people end up giving a large portion of their hard-earned money to attorney’s fees just to prove the person authorized to represent your estate and oversee the distribution of your assets and payments to creditors. It’s also a very long process and it could take your loved ones, especially your spouses and children months, and maybe even several years to receive a penny. It’s not something you’d want them to deal with and you’d want to make sure that they avoid it at all costs.

Lessen Estate Taxes

Advance wills and estate planning can help you take advantage of tax-saving strategies to avoid significant loss of your estate to the payment of state and/or federal estate taxes or state inheritance taxes.

Through the most basic plan, you can avoid three common estate costs:

1. Probate fees - In Ontario,  probate fees to settle your estate, which is officially called an estate administration tax, can be very high and can reach as much as 1.5% of your estate’s value.

2. Estate tax on capital gains - For income tax purposes, it is considered that upon your death you have sold all your assets.   Your estate must cover the tax on any profit from the “sale” proceeds, of which 50 percent is taxed. If rental properties are included in your assets, there may also be capital cost allowance or CCA which is fully taxed.

3. Tax on tax-sheltered savings plans - Upon your death, your registered plans such as RRSPs (registered retirement savings plans ) and/or RRIFs (registered retirement income funds) can be transferred to your spouse’s or /common-law partner’s plan free of tax. However, If you don’t have a spouse or /common-law partner, the full value of each plan is fully taxable at your death and the remaining value to be passed on to any of your blood-related heirs can be dramatically reduced.

Protect your Assets and Beneficiaries

A variety of advanced estate planning techniques, such as using trusts, wills, and beneficiary designations, can help ensure that your children are properly protected. You can name a responsible guardian or trustee for them until they come of age to prevent any family discord and costly legal expenses against the children’s inheritance. A wills and estate plan can also add a layer of asset protection against creditors lawsuits and divorce decrees. It also allows you to maintain control of your property while you are alive regardless of your age, health or financial condition and to provide instructions on your care and the care your loved ones in the event of a disability.

The wills and estate law of Canada empowers you to set up a comprehensive plan that will help you to achieve goals that will ensure the protection of your assets during your lifetime and for your beneficiaries after your death. It’s really more than just protection from federal tax laws, but a lot more about making certain that your well-being as well as those of your loved ones are taken cared of the way you plan it to.

Corporate Lawyers for Startups and Small Businesses

Corporate lawyers deal with legal issues that face businesses day to day. They are highly specialized in multiple aspects of the law that relate to business operations, which can include securities and tax law, code compliance, contract negotiations, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and financial reporting,  among many other specializations

Unlike trial lawyers, they are not involved in litigation and do not spend a lot of time in the courtroom. Corporate lawyers focus their work mostly on business deals and commercial transactions. Their work involves a lot more collaboration with other lawyers, either from other companies to negotiate contracts or those with legal expertise in other aspects of law to help ensure that the company he works for complies with all local, state and federal applicable laws.

Some are hired directly by corporations as in-house counsel and act as internal advisers providing legal advice on issues ranging from labor and employment issues, intellectual property issues, contractual issues, and liability issues. Then there are those who work in large or midsize law firms and are hired as consultants by corporate clients to provide counsel on corporate governance framework and practices such as the rights and responsibilities of corporate directors and officers, and also to oversee activities associated with the daily needs of the business, including negotiation, drafting, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, financial reporting to owners, employees, shareholders and government agencies and other general oversight that may affect the legal activities of the company.

How can a corporate lawyer help new businesses?

Budding entrepreneurs can benefit a great deal with the services of a corporate lawyer. Startups are usually faced with numerous decisions, such as drumming up new customers, developing a website and launching a new product and often times the administrative and legal aspects are overlooked. It’s good to have a corporate attorney who will provide, not only advice, but also assistance to prepare, file and register all the necessary federal, state and local requirements, including zoning compliance, copyright and trademark advice, and formal business incorporation.

One aspect of law that any new business may find challenging involves the decision on the legal entity of the business. Determining the right legal structure of the business is crucial to help protect your personal assets from any liabilities of the company.

Whether the business will be set up as a corporation, a partnership, a limited liability company, a sole proprietorship, or even as a joint venture, it will have an effect on financial and legal matters that may potentially influence the success of the business in the long term. Each structure will have its own set of advantages and disadvantages and only a corporate lawyer is qualified to explain several issues involved, such as the implications of federal and state tax requirements and how to limit liability for the stakeholders.

  

Many corporate lawyers specialize in the laws involving new business structures. As such, they can also be involved in the development of the business plan, help you register your products and services for federal trademark and copyright protection and also in negotiating possible sources of financing, such as with investment bankers and venture capitalists.

The primary responsibility of corporate lawyers is to ensure that all business transactions involving their clients’ organizations are in compliance with the law at every level. But aside from their legal expertise, they must also possess a very keen business and financial acumen in order to make certain that business risks are minimized and clients make legal decisions that translate well for the bottom line.

What to Expect When Working with Toronto Family Lawyers

Toronto family lawyers are highly qualified to handle a range of problems that may arise in a marriage, civil union, or domestic partnership. Some of the problems that they can deal with in court for a family law case include the following:

• Divorce
• Separation
• Spousal support
• Child support
• Visitation rights
• Annulment
• Property settlements
• Alimony payments
• Parental responsibility orders
• Legitimacy
• Spousal abuse
• Child abuse
• Child custody
• Child kidnapping
• Adoption
• Surrogacy
• Child abduction
• Prenuptial agreements
• Grandparent visitation
• Paternity tests

Not every family lawyer will have the qualifications and experience to handle all aspects of family law.  Some will focus their practice on child visitation or support agreements and will have the knowledge and skills to help you through custody disputes, fight for your visitation rights and protect your rights in a paternity hearing.

Divorce attorneys are highly skilled in laws relating to the dissolution of marriage, including the laws comprising the division of property, spousal support, child custody, and child support.

Adoption & surrogacy solicitors are family lawyers who have particular expertise in legal issues surrounding Adoption Law and Surrogacy Law. They have acquired the experience necessary to deal with the legal framework involved in these practice areas as well as deal with the sensitive issues in regards to children and their prospective parents.

If you’re getting married, there are qualified family lawyers who can help you figure out how your marriage will affect your finances, properties and other assets and offer legal advice on drafting a prenuptial agreement to protect your wealth in case your marriage ends, or draft documents that will financially and legally protect your estate in the event of an untimely death.

Always check the qualifications and credentials of a lawyer to verify that he is specialized in specific practice areas that  you are looking for to make sure that you hire the right type of lawyer for your needs.

Do I Need a Family Lawyer in Toronto or a Mediator?

A family lawyer in Toronto and a mediator can both help resolve family law problems, but each play very different roles. When handling a divorce or a child custody or support case, is it better to hire an attorney or a mediator?

When you hire a family lawyer, he can act as a counselor at law and as an advocate for you in family law matters involving property division, child custody and visitation, child support, alimony, modification of alimony, custody or child support. As a counselor at law, he will provide legal advice relating to your rights and options on a range of possible legal outcomes and help you understand information on court processes, rules, procedures and investigations in the event that there is a need to go to court and have a judge resolve matters. As an advocate, a family law attorney will help you stand up for your rights and challenge the opposing party if necessary, negotiate for you and help you appeal decisions if possible, help you draft a separation agreement or any contract if necessary, and go to court with you and convince a judge to award you what you seek.


A family mediator on the other hand is a neutral third-party who helps resolve disputes about family issues by acting as an intermediary between the parties involved. A mediator is typically a social worker, lawyer, psychologist, or other trained professional. The family mediator’s job is to help both parties communicate properly in order to reach an agreement on support payments, the division of property, custody of and access to the children, child support, or any other family-related issues.


Unlike a family law lawyer, a mediator cannot act as an advocate to any one party. Instead, he equally bargains the position of each party and may be able to suggest solutions that may help the parties find common ground or expose potential pitfalls that may influence the objectivity or fairness of the outcome. A mediator cannot also give legal advice to either party as he must maintain a neutral and unbiased position in favor of both sides and is duly obligated by the law to disclose one party’s concerns or interests to the other party. 


Another thing that a mediator cannot do is to draft a separation agreement. According to the Solicitors Act, only a lawyer who has special knowledge of Family Laws can write up a separation agreement. Mediators can draft a Memorandum of Understanding, but this is not considered legally binding and must be changed into a Separation Agreement in order to establish lawful accountability by the separated spouses.


If you wish to have someone completely and independently on your side to assist you through every legal issue during the separation process, advocate your legal position and guide you through a successful separation agreement, then your best move is to hire a family lawyer in Toronto. If on the other hand you wish to use alternative dispute resolution methods to resolve your family dispute without resorting to a trial, then you will need the services of a family mediator. If you consider mediation, you will still be advised to speak to a lawyer before seeing a mediator to fully understand the law and your rights and obligations before mediation starts and to consult with one to write up a separation agreement and help you fully understand the terms of the contract.

Do You Need a Toronto Family Lawyer?

Toronto Family Lawyer

When a marriage or relationship breaks down, parents are forced to make decisions about how and with whom the children will live. In some cases, decisions can be made with or without the help of a Toronto family lawyer. However, when both the parents disagree they will need to seek out legal advice to understand their rights and obligations in obtaining custody or access.

Custody technically means having the legal right and responsibility to make decisions for the child’s welfare and upbringing which can be related to health, education, religion and other major issues that may greatly affect the formation of the child. Decisions that are made day-to-day, such as schedules, diet restrictions, vacations, etc. do not form part of custody and are made with the parent who the child lives with at the moment.

There are different types of custody:

Sole custody is when only one parent has rights and responsibilities to make decisions concerning the child. Whether the other parent agrees or disagrees with any decisions the custodial parent makes will not matter at all. In addition, the child lives all the time, or most of the time, with the custodial parent.

In a joint custody both of the child’s parents may take turns having the child live with them and they share equal time and rights and responsibilities in making decisions that affect the child. One parent cannot make a final decision without the agreement of the other.

A split custody happens when each parent has custody of one or more of the children. For example, the older child stays with the father who has rights and responsibilities over him, and the younger children live with the mother who has custody over them.

A shared custody is when both parents are given joint custody, which means the child lives for an equal length of time with each of them.

Access rights such as visiting rights and outing rights are given to the parent who does not have full custody of the child. Access indicates the level of contact the parent can have with the child. If a child lives primarily with one parent, the other parent can see the child on an agreed schedule.

Custody and access decisions can be made in two ways. The first is through a separation agreement. This is possible only if the parents have civil relations with each other as they will have to sit down in the presence of a lawyer and make decisions together for the best interest of the child. Decisions that are made during the course of discussion are put down on paper and signed by both parties along with witnesses. This document is referred to as the ‘parenting plan’ or ‘parenting agreement.’

In situations wherein both parents are uncooperative and cannot come up with an agreement, then they are forced to have the court decide on who obtains custody of their child. Custody and access court cases can become costly and complicated, especially when a case cannot be resolved with just one trial. In this case, the legal proceedings can be drawn-out for months and affect you and your child for the rest of your lives.

Before deciding to go to court, it is advisable to meet with a lawyer. A family lawyer in Toronto can advise you on what evidence to gather to support your case and create an action plan to help you build your case to ensure that the court rules in your favor.

How Much Do Family Law Lawyers Cost?

Family law lawyers give advice and fight for their clients on many issues such as separation agreements, divorce, spousal support, matrimonial home considerations, custody and access and child support. How much their services will cost will depend on the complexity of the particular case at hand.

According to a 2015 survey by Canadian Lawyer Mag, for an uncontested divorce, for example, costs can range from $974 up to $1,588. Costs for contested divorces average as low as $4,336 up to as high as $25,417. When a trial is involved, average costs can be anywhere from $19,625 to $44,000, depending on the number of days the trial lasts. No matter how much the costs, you can be assured that lawyers will bill you for services rendered.

In most cases, when lawyer’s bill a client it will include a request for payment for lawyer’s fees and disbursements. Fees refer to the cost of your lawyer’s time, while disbursements are other related costs that the lawyer incurs for working on your case, such as expenses for photocopying, mailing and faxing. Lawyers will also ask clients to pay for any substantial costs incurred on the client’s behalf such as process server fees or court filing fees, the cost of hiring experts and costs for obtaining reports (such as medical reports).

Your lawyer may ask you to pay for disbursements and other costs upfront, or he can include these in his billing for his fees. There are several ways that lawyers may bill clients:

Retainer

In a retainer agreement, you pay the lawyer a deposit in order to retain his services throughout the duration of your case. The deposit amount is usually a percentage of what the lawyer expects his total bill will be at the end of the case. Generally, lawyers do not start working on any case until the retainer fee is paid.

Hourly Basis

A common arrangement in Canada is to pay lawyers by the hour. This means that your lawyer will bill you for every hour he spends working on your case. Typically, this will include phone calls he makes, relaying instructions to his assistant/secretary, taking documents to the court, and some lawyers will even bill you for hours spent driving to get to court. To avoid any conflict, you and your lawyer must agree from the start on what costs should be billed to you. On an hourly rate basis, a lawyer may bill you weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on what arrangement is most affordable to you. In a retainer arrangement, the lawyer will bill hourly rates against the retainer fee. In this case, he will send a statement enumerating all costs paid from the retainer. Once the retainer is used up, your lawyer will ask you to provide another retainer fee or deposit.

Flat Rate

Lawyers are sometimes paid on a flat rate. In this case, a client pays a fixed amount for the service, no matter how much time a lawyer spends on it. This is usually for one-time services like drafting a Separation Agreement or notarizing a simple will. It is very unlikely for family law lawyers to work on a complex case for a flat rate, unless for some very special cases that have a cause for them.

Sliding Scale

In this type of payment arrangement, a lawyer will charge lower fees for low income clients. Typically, a client is required to present proof of income and assets to be considered on this basis.

Fees for family law lawyers and overall expenses for filing cases in court can reach excessive amounts. Whether you are being charged $250 or $50,000, make sure that your lawyer understands family law thoroughly and gives honest advice so that you get real value for the money you pay.

How to Find a Family Lawyer in Toronto

In Toronto, a family lawyer will be able to help deal with any legal issues relating to property, child custody, child support or spousal support in the event of a divorce or separation.  There are many legal concerns to look after once you and your spouse or partner decide to separate or to get a divorce. Some of these issues are:

-        Who will get custody of the children?

-        How much is child support?

-        How much is spousal support?

-        Who gets to live in the marital home?

-        Who will get the car, or the paintings or the cat or dog?

-        What happens to money in the bank or in investments?

-        What happens to all the debts?

-        Can you get a protection order, if you’re dealing with domestic abuse?

All of these legal concerns can be very difficult to understand on your own. You will definitely need some help to sort out all the legalities involved in order to come up with the best arrangements for everyone.

A family law lawyer can help you understand your legal rights and responsibilities. He can explain to you in plain words and give details on how the law applies to your case. He can also help you reach an agreement with your former partner without going to court.

There are too many family lawyers waiting to offer you their services, but not all of them will be the right fit for you. When you’re looking for a lawyer, follow these steps to make sure you don’t end up with the wrong lawyer.

Step 1 – Identify your needs

Do you need to hire a mediator to help you negotiate the terms of your divorce? Are your needs more complicated and you need a divorce lawyer to negotiate a settlement with your spouse’s attorney? If neither parties can agree, then a litigated trial is the only course of action. Keep in mind that any family lawyer that you consider will try to influence you in the direction they specialize in. Know what you need to get out of your divorce or separation first so you can decide on the right legal services to hire.

Step 2 – Find at least three potential lawyers

Ask for personal recommendations from trusted sources. A good word of mouth from someone who has actual experience of a lawyer’s expertise is usually reliable. In most cases, it is an advantage to look for someone who is within the local area. Clearly you need to make sure a potential lawyer specializes in family law, but you also need to look for someone who is experienced and has handled several cases similar to yours, someone who can communicate with you without difficulty and who is familiar with the local court system. Research on the lawyer’s trial record and history of success in court to give you an idea of how successful he is in negotiation.

Step 3 – Meet with the lawyers

Most lawyers provide free consultation for the initial meeting so be sure to be as thorough as possible. Prepare a list of questions to ask. Here are some:

-        How long have you practiced family law?

-        What type of client do you represent?

-        How do you typically handle a case?

-        What are your rates? How often will I be billed for the retainer?

-        Will a colleague or associate manage my case?

-        What should I expect?

Step 4 – Choose the one

Review how the first meeting went and weigh up your overall thoughts and feelings towards each of them. Here are some questions to help you make an assessment:

-          What’s your first impression?

-          How did you feel? Comfortable? Intimidated? Confused?

-          Did he answer all your questions clearly and simply?

-          Do you feel you could communicate well together?

-          Do you feel he is someone you can trust?

-          Can you afford him?

-          Do you think he can support your values and beliefs about family?

-          Do you feel he has your best interest at heart?

Divorce or separation within the family can turn your world upside down. Not only will it wear everyone down physically, it can leave you in financial uncertainty and in emotional and mental turmoil. Finding the right family lawyer in Toronto is crucial to help make the whole process smooth, quick and less expensive.

The Value of a Skilled Corporate Lawyer in Toronto

Aiding businesses in transactions and providing legal guidance on all business matters are just two of the highly important tasks of a corporate lawyer in Toronto. No matter what size of a company, from a sole proprietor, an association, to a full blown corporation, legal representation is a necessity. As a matter of fact, a business lawyer can serve a company in a few different ways that can not only help them run their business as smoothly as possible, but also make improvements to the overall business operations. 

Assisting in the execution of business objectives

One of the primary roles of a business lawyer is to understand their client’s business and the industry and business environment in which they operate. He or she must comprehend the ins and outs of the business from financial standing, to short and long term goals and also understand their needs and wants. Once a client explains their problems and their objectives, a good business lawyer will look for the best way to achieve the company’s desired result even if it is a new and novel approach.

Advising the client on different matters with a legal perspective

Being able to provide a unique and informative insight on transactions, contracts, major decisions and agreements, and even daily operations is an important task for a business lawyer.  This falls in line with the primary role above.  To make suggestions, recommendations, and new ideas to the client that they haven’t thought of yet is a significant advantage. A business lawyer adds value because they not only understand the business perspective but also bring to bear their legal expertise to help the client solve a problem. 

Being able to limit the client’s potential risk

A business lawyer is a company’s first defense against, fraud, abuse, scams, unfair practices and any other possible risks to the business. By looking through and analyzing every step that the company makes, the lawyer is able to provide legal input and insight before the company makes any final decision. This means that due diligence is also part of a business lawyer’s responsibilities. Checking and understanding all sides and aspects of an agreement or document or possible partnership, the company is protected from almost any short or long term complication.

Representation, Negotiation and Documentation

In most major deals and agreements that a company will make, legal representation will present. In some cases, only the lawyers will make an appearance. This is especially true during the negotiation process. As the details are agreed upon and hammered out, the lawyers negotiate with their client’s best interest in mind. 

Aside from representing the client, business lawyers are also responsible for documenting every aspect of the company’s dealings from simple contracts to major investment decisions.

In so many ways, a business lawyer is an invaluable asset to a company or an organization no matter what size they may be. From starting a business to mergers and acquisitions a corporate lawyer in Toronto offers up their legal expertise and beyond to help a business grow and solve their toughest challenges.