Aug 21, 2025
If you had kids, wouldn’t you make sure they were taken care of if something were to happen to you? Of course. So why aren’t we doing the same for our furry friends?
I’ve worked in Estates for 5 years and have been an animal lover for 28. I’ve seen a lot of Wills, however, I’ve noticed that none of them specify what would happen to their pets if they were to pass.
Now I know what you are thinking, not everyone likes these messy, smelly, hairy, EXPENSIVE (but adorable) animals, but did you know that 60% of Canadian households own at least one pet? By my calculations, that means I should have come across at least a handful of Wills that mentioned their fur babies.
I suspect that people don’t include their pets in their Wills because they either don’t know you can, or they assume a loved one will automatically care for them. Whether it be because they couldn’t imagine giving the animal away or because it may be the last living thing tied to your deceased loved one. However, that’s not realistic to assume nor expect, because animals are a big responsibility.
Now, who is “qualified” to take on the responsibility of being a fur parent?
- Consider their lifestyle. Do they have enough space/room? Are they renting or owning their home? Are they physically fit/capable of giving the animal the care it needs? Does anyone in the household have pet allergies?
- Consider the time commitment. What is their work schedule? Do they have any upcoming travel plans? If they have any kids already, are the kids ready to interact safely with a pet (and is the pet able to interact safely with children?) Are they planning to start a family soon?
- Consider the financial responsibility. Can they afford the ongoing costs and unexpected expenses?
The list goes on.
Please make sure you consider these questions when you are drafting your Will and planning to include your pets. If you have a specific person in mind, ask yourself the above questions, and once you think you have a suitable person, have a conversation with them and make sure they’re agreeable to taking on the responsibility. And it never hurts to have a backup – just in case!
The reality is, if you don’t properly consider the future care of your fur baby, they can end up in a shelter. Shelters are extremely overcrowded and underfunded, and with the cost of living getting more and more expensive, people can hardly afford kids, let alone animals. While children are almost always accounted for in the case that their parents pass, pets are not, and there aren’t the same securities and care put in place to keep them homed, fed, and cared for. Abandoned pets are often (and sadly) euthanized.
It’s important we also don’t forget the furry friends that have already passed and live on a shelf in your loved one’s home. Don’t let them end up in the trash or on a new shelf in a Value Village or Good Will.
Now, here is where I say something crazy, stay with me. I don’t have kids. My dogs are my kids and that is crazy to some people because animals don’t share the same DNA. But real animal lovers will get it.
Introducing the Casey & Moss LLP furry friends. The emotional support behind our toughest days.
Samantha’s dogs: Rusty and Phoebe
Hannah’s family dogs: Bubba, Andy and Kevin
Hannah’s family cat: Bucky
Hannah’s cats: Glep and Coraline
Colleen’s dog: George
Diana’s cat: Ollie
Jenny’s dog: Kaycie
Angelique’s cat: Ginger
Rebecca’s cat: Chester
Jennifer’s cat: Molson
Angela’s dog: Zoey
If you’ve stayed this long, and have a pet, give them a cuddle for me! <3
Samantha Valvona
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
Aug 8, 2025
This blog is part 2 of a series which started with this one: “Re-thinking Power of Attorney Litigation.”
My first modest suggestion for power of attorney (“POA”) litigation is to fully explore clients’ assumptions about the rights and powers of POAs before initiating litigation.
If the aggrieved party uses words like “power”, “in charge” and “control” when describing the role of a POA, rather than “duty”, “responsibility”, “accountability” and “service”, it is a sign that the person who wants the job doesn’t fully understand the role.
For example, I am shocked by the number of children who believe that as soon as the family home is sold and a parent enters a care setting, that is the time to divide up the house sale proceeds among themselves. They mistakenly think that the POA gets to decide how and when to divide up the parent’s money. Not so. The incapable person’s money must be carefully managed solely for the incapable person’s benefit during his or her lifetime.
Yes, that is true even if the nursing home costs will not exceed the incapable person’s income. Yes, that is true even if the children are all counting on their inheritance as a pathway to home ownership and would like to receive at least part of their inheritance early. Yes, that is true even if the parent’s dementia has progressed to the point that he or she would not even miss the house sale proceeds.
Another common reason litigants want to be “in charge” is the mistaken belief that a POA can make unilateral decisions without talking to anyone else. POA litigation usually involves high conflict families. The person who wants to be POA or Guardian of Property needs to understand that, if successful, there will be a duty to consult with supportive family members and friends of the incapable person, including the despised sibling.
The Substitute Decisions Act uses the word “consult” to describe this duty on substitute decision makers. This is different from informing after-the-fact. To do the job of POA correctly, the POA will need to share all information relevant to a substitute decision with the incapable person’s family members, then listen to their feedback and opinions before implementing a substitute decision. If you are unable or unwilling to communicate effectively with your immediate family members, you are not qualified for the job.
Before initiating POA litigation, I often refer clients to this helpful summary of the duties and obligations of Guardians of Property on the Public Guardian and Trustee’s website [1].
It is important to fully explore how taking on this 24/7 responsibility will impact the POA’s life. Vacations could be interrupted by a call from the nursing home. POAs will face practical problems like banks that won’t provide online access to bank accounts and paid caregivers who don’t work out. Tax returns to be filed, forms to be filled out, doctor and dentist appointments to be tracked, medications to be managed. The POA will ultimately be responsible to account to the beneficiaries of the incapable person’s estate, and possibly the Court, about every transaction during the POA period. A lost receipt could become a personal liability.
These duties and obligations should be fully explored before heading down the destructive and expensive path of POA litigation so that the client has eyes wide open about what “winning” entails.
[1] Most of the duties imposed on Guardians of Property are also applicable to fiduciaries acting under a power of attorney, the primary distinction being that a Guardian of Property will be obligated to act in accordance with a Management Plan and will have to pass accounts to the Public Guardian and Trustee by a particular deadline.
Angela Casey
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
Jul 18, 2025
After months of waiting, you’ve finally received your Certificate of Appointment from the Court, and you can now manage the estate, pay debts, bring in the assets, file taxes, and distribute funds.
But what do you do if you don’t know the full value of the estate and the Estate Information Return (EIR) deadline is 180 days away and fast approaching?
As an estate trustee, you have the responsibility to determine the assets of the estate and confirm the values as of the Date of Death, and it can often be a long and difficult process to obtain the information you need from a financial institution.
If you are not aware of the assets, you can consider using a service like Estatesearch or hire a lawyer to do a deep dive and uncover any accounts.
Here are a few tips and steps you should take to obtain the information you need:
1. Hire a Lawyer: In many ways it is valuable to have a lawyer assisting and advising you on the estate administration process and to reach out to the different financial institutions on your behalf. There is a cost associated with this work, so take this into consideration.
2. Prepare notarized copies of the following documents (notaries, lawyers, and paralegals can provide this service):
- Will (if obtaining prior to issuance of your Certificate of Appointment)
- Death Certificate
- Issued Certificate of Appointment
3. Provide a copy of a valid government-issued photo ID to the bank.
4. Walk into the bank branch and provide them with the notarized documents and inquire about how you can obtain statements showing balances as of the date of death. Some estate departments of banks require the branch staff to verify the physical copies of the documents and your ID in person before speaking to the Estate Trustee on the phone or via email.
5. If applicable: Call the bank and inquire about how to submit the documents needed to gain access to the statements. Some will accept clear, scanned emailed, mailed or faxed-in copies and others require you to attend in person.
6. If applicable: Mail or fax the above documents to the relevant estate department along with your request for the balance of the account and statements as of the date of death.
7. Follow-up and keep good records. On that first conversation with the bank, ask for a reference number, and phone number or email address so that you can follow up on the status of your request. Once you receive the requested information, save it and make note of the documents and values received for when you need to report to the court and on your Estate Information Return.
Olesya Johnson
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
Jul 3, 2025
I am the type of person who spends a lot of time planning for the future. When I was 16, I developed a ten year plan: Attend Queen’s University for the commerce program, move out to British Columbia to go to UBC for law school, then move back to Toronto to work in corporate law at a large law firm, and eventually make partner. That, to me, was what success looked like.
In my pursuit of these goals, I had come to accept the fact that to achieve this, I would likely have to work harder and make more sacrifices than most men with similar aspirations. One of the most prominent issues in the conversation about the challenges that women face in the workplace is the choice between family and career. Although I am still in the early stages of my career, having only just completed my undergrad, like many other ambitious women, I have already found myself questioning how my career will be affected if I decide to one day start a family? Similarly, how will my career affect my ability to prioritize family? Ultimately, I decided that if I want to achieve my version of success, these sacrifices would be unavoidable.
When the opportunity to join Casey and Moss for the summer first presented itself to me, of course, I looked up the firm online. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the firm, and more importantly, the partnership was overwhelmingly female. Before ever stepping foot in the office, I was excited at the prospect of working with and under other women who essentially are who I have always wanted to be.
I have been working here at C&M for about two and a half months now and have not been disappointed. In this time, I have noticed two things in particular:
- The women here are highly accomplished in their work. They are widely respected and praised by their peers and clients, and they have been repeatedly recognized for their excellence both individually and as a firm. From what I have seen and in my experience working with these lawyers, they are all passionate about their work and always do right by their clients. Overall, they are everything that I always imagined success would look like.
- At the same time, they all seem to be able to balance their varying priorities. For some, this has meant prioritizing their families and their personal lives at times. If they are sick or a family member is sick, they can work from home. If they are pregnant, they can take maternity leave without fear of falling behind. This is done without undermining their professional success.
While these may seem trivial to some, many young, ambitious women have to choose between the two, whereas men are not faced with the same choice. This is only one of the many ways that the women at this firm have changed my perception of what success needs to look like. Every day, I am both fascinated and inspired by the lawyers at this firm. Each of them has been the embodiment of what the legal field (and the broader workforce) should be like for women. It has been and continues to be a privilege to work at C&M, a place where the partnership has carved out a space for women in law. In the mere two and a half months that I have been here, I have come to recognize C&M not just for the value it brings to clients, but what it represents to women like me: a symbol of change for female success in a male-oriented workforce.
Jenny Sun
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
Jun 18, 2025
I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad?
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That’s too bad…
My colleague Rebecca Suggitt previously blogged about the importance of keeping proper accounts as an attorney or guardian of property. One of the reasons she gave was that a guardian or attorney’s compensation is tied directly to the receipts and disbursements person under guardianship or attorneyship (who will be referred to as the “incapable person”).
Generally, the rule that applies to a guardian or attorney’s compensation is a charge of 3% on all receipts and disbursements in the guardianship or attorneyship accounts, per the regulations under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. (For simplicity, I will use the term “fiduciary” to mean “guardian” or “attorney” for the remainder of this blog, but be aware that “fiduciary” is a broader term that is not limited to guardians or attorneys.)
The broad purpose of this 3% charge is to compensate fiduciaries for the work they do to manage the incapable person’s assets, such as paying their bills, purchasing necessities and personal items, and collecting and managing money from their sources of income.
However, like many legal principles, there are exceptions to this general rule. There are certain receipts and disbursements that the 3% charge should not be applied to. Below are a few commonly seen non-compensable transactions:
Transfers Between Accounts
People often own more than one bank or investment account. The fiduciary may need to move money from the savings to chequing account to pay the incapable person’s monthly bills, or decide to invest the excess funds in chequing account by moving it into an investment vehicle. These transfers will appear in the accounting as a disbursement (when the money leaves the original account) and a corresponding receipt (when the money is deposited into the second account). But, because the money is not leaving the guardianship/attorneyship to pay a third party, nor is new money coming in, these are not compensable transactions. They should be recorded in the accounting bookkeeping or “memo” transactions only.
Refunds
The accounts will reflect refunds, for instance, when items are returned to a store and a credit is issued back to the incapable person. The refunded money will appear in the accounting as a receipt. Since these receipts are not deposits of new money or income, they are not compensable transactions.
Capital Losses
Capital losses occur when an asset is sold for less than its adjusted cost base. The fiduciary may need to liquidate stocks, investments, or other assets because the incapable person needs cash to pay for their expenses. Capital losses appear in the accounting as disbursements. However, they are not true disbursements because no money leaves the guardianship or attorneyship to pay for a good or service. As such, they are non-compensable.
Compensation Paid to the Fiduciary
Fiduciaries are permitted to pay themselves compensation on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, pursuant to the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992. If so, the accounts will reflect compensation payments to the fiduciary throughout the period of accounting. As it would be duplicative for the fiduciary to pay themselves for paying themselves, these transactions are non-compensable.
How to Reflect Non-Compensable Transactions in the Calculation for Compensation
The value of these identified non-compensable transactions should be deducted from the value of total receipts and disbursements during the accounting period. After making all deductions, apply the 3% to the net receipts and disbursements to calculate the compensation.
Zara Wong
Nothing contained in this post constitutes legal advice or establishes a solicitor-client relationship. If you have any questions regarding your legal rights or legal obligations, you should consult a lawyer.
