Welcome to a new CBA year!

Welcome to another year with the CBA!

I am stepping into the Chair role with the Section and I am very excited about what is coming up. For those of you whom I have not yet met, I work as a wills and estates solicitor at McLeod Law LLP in Calgary. This year may be another challenging one, but I have been noticing that despite everything, there have been some improvements as a result of the pandemic. Please feel free to reach out to me or other members of the national Executive Committee if there are any topics you would like us to address. I wish you all a happy and healthy year!

Check out our initiatives below. Please save the date for a future webinar, catch up on the latest member articles and more! We also need volunteers to help update the concordance tables for Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories. Contact us if you are interested!

Advance Care Planning Webinar – Save the Date!

On January 26, 2022, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET, a webinar on the "Living Well, Planning Well" toolkit for lawyers will be jointly presented by our Section and the CBA Health Law Section. Please mark this date in your calendar and stay tuned for more details (see Law Series)! This webinar will provide an overview of Advance Care Planning and how it arises in one’s legal practice. Speakers will discuss laws relating to ACP in various Canadian jurisdictions, how lawyers can assist clients with ACP and how they can utilize the legal toolkit.

New Member Articles

Members have been hard at work producing and sharing articles on the latest issues and news in our practice! Please contact Melissa Saunders, Communications Officer, to contribute to member articles, particularly those of national importance. Recent articles include:

• A Tale of Two Spouses: Boughton v. Widner Estate by Polly Storey
• COVID-19 and the Curative Provision in WESA, s. 58: Bishop Estate v. Sheardown, 2021 BCSC 1571 by Polly Storey
• Ensuring Inclusivity when Advising Older Adults by Hannah Zip
• Mandel v. 1909975 Ontario Inc.: Tax Planning for 21^st Anniversary of a Trust Goes Awry by Brian Nichols and Kelsey Horning
• When Parliamentarians Tinker – Bill C-208 (Part 1) by Brian Nichols and Kelsey Horning
• Deans Knight Intersects Bill C-208: The Meaning of Control and Implications for Intergenerational Transfers (Part 2) by Brian Nichols and Kelsey Horning

Certified Executor Advisor Designation

The CBA has partnered with the Canadian Institute of Certified Executor Advisors to offer its CEA designation program at a discounted rate for CBA members! The program provides a broad practical understanding of the estate transfer process from the perspective of the seventeen professions executors may turn to in the course of their duties.

CBA members benefit from a $200 discount on initial course registration! Learn more about this offer!

Updates

• Concordance tables: Our Section annually updates the national cross-jurisdictional tables of concordance aligning laws across provinces and territories. The latest version of the national cross-jurisdictional tables are now available.
• LinkedIn: We have a new LinkedIn page to promote the sharing of ideas and information. Please follow us, like our updates and share!
• COVID resource: Check out our updated COVID-19: Laws and Practices for Wills, Estates and Trusts.

More Relevant, Recent PD!

On-demand recordings are now available:

• Use of Reproductive Material After Death and Estate Planning Considerations (September 2021) (Recording coming soon)
• Inter-Provincial Issues regarding Powers of Attorneys (April 2021)
• What’s New in Pensions and Benefits: Case Law and Regulatory Update (April 2021)
• Remote Wills and Estates Planning: Tips and Traps (March 2021)
• An Estate Planner’s Primer to Digital Assets (May 2020)

Thank you,

Lindsey Louro, TEP
Chair, CBA Wills, Estates and Trusts