And for the final estate planning tip when baby is on the way — review your insurance policies. Each situation is unique and you will want to review yours with an insurance professional, but you should know that unless you make provision for a trust in your Will and ensure money is in your estate, money left to your child(ren) directly will not be readily available to anyone to raise your child(ren). For example,
Make sure you have valid Power of Attorney for Property (“POA”). This is always important to have but even more so now that you will be having a baby. Without a POA for Property, neither you nor your spouse can do anything with assets you jointly own (except bank accounts). Note that a POA for Property cannot
Whether your first or your fifth, welcoming a new baby to your family is surely one of life’s greatest joys. In all the flurry of excitement as you prepare to bring your wee one home, don’t forget to review your estate planning as revisions will be necessary to properly plan for your expanding family. Over the next few blogs, I will suggest some things to consider.
When I am travelling and want to access the internet where there is no wi-fi, I use my iPhone’s built-in Personal Hotspot feature to connect my iPad or my laptop quickly and easily.
I have an iPad, iPhone 4S, a Toshiba laptop running XP Pro and an Asus netbook. The steps below describe how to connect any of these using the Personal Hotspot feature.
That’s all it takes. One signature can completely undo the most careful estate planning. Just what am I talking about? Let me tell you about Jim (not his real name) who met with me recently to review his estate plan. We talked about his unique family situation, what he owned, who he wanted to benefit and why.
Jim was married with one little boy. He also had an older daughter from a previous marriage. She lived with Jim and his family as Jim had sole custody. Although Jim loved both of his children equally, he felt that his daughter should receive something extra from his estate. He reasoned that his son would inherit from both Jim and Shawna as well as from Shawna’s parents who were quite wealthy. However, his daughter’s mother had disappeared years ago and was unlikely to leave anything for her.
When I give a presentation to a large group, I like to display PowerPoint slides to outline my topic as I go along and make sure that I don’t miss key points. I recently bought an iPad and have been experimenting with different ways to use the iPad for this purpose. It seems like there are dozens of ways to do this. Just check the App Store or google “PowerPoint iPad” and you will find many possible solutions. I was looking for a solution that was quick and inexpensive. All I had to buy (besides the iPad) was a VGA adapter which cost $39 plus tax.
Here are the steps I took:
Picking up from last week’s blog where I took a look at some things you should consider before traveling to the US this winter, let’s take a brief look at issues relating to US property ownership and US citizens living in Canada.
Owning US Real Property
Given the price of US real estate and our strong dollar, many Canadians are buying or thinking about buying a US vacation property. If you own or are planning to purchase US real property, you should know whether your Canadian will and POA’s are considered valid in the jurisdiction where your property is (or will be) located. If anything should happen to you, will your executor or attorney for property be able to deal with your US real property?
In honour of the recent US holiday weekend, I thought I would focus on some estate planning topics south of the border for the next couple of blogs. Are you or someone you know:
For all of these situations, there are estate planning considerations of particular importance to ensure that your legal obligations are met.
Two months ago after much thought and research and talking to other iPad™ users, I took the plunge and bought an iPad 2. This wasn’t meant to be a toy but a tool for getting real work done, any place, any time that suited me and my busy on-the-go schedule.
Question: How do I know if I can have a Registered Disability Savings Plan (“RDSP”)? Will it affect my payments under the Ontario Disability Support Program (“ODSP”)? Answer: Any Canadian resident under the age of 60 and…
