If people are unprepared, the well-being of not just people affected today, but also those in the future, will suffer. This is not just an old-folks issue – it spans all ages. Baby boomers currently make up nearly a quarter of all Canadians. With baby boomer deaths increasing, the process to transfer wealth – in excess of $1 trillion this decade – between generations is messy and getting messier because it’s occurring in an increasingly complex legal, tax, and financial environment ill-prepared to cope with the onslaught of work despite government efforts to streamline. For example, some professionals estimate that the time needed to probate a will in the Greater Toronto Area has now more than doubled to 8-9 months; the time for tax authorities to issue tax clearance certificates now exceeds a year as compared to the CRA's goal of 6 months). This means many people will have to pay probate fees and taxes well before estate proceeds are available to pay them.
After speaking to several people on a mission to help Canadians prepare for the inevitable end of life, we decided to do something about it. We picked five issues we think can be addressed with little or no legislative change or cost, and that will materially help make things as easy as possible for families and their executors preparing for and coping with the death of a family member. The five are:
For more detail on the things we think need to be addressed, please read our letter to the Ontario government (use Chrome or Edge to access this if you can't open this link). And how about you? Have you come up against blocks as you try to move forward to prepare for or settle an estate? Please let us know by emailing [email protected] because these five are just the beginning. #executor #estate #probate #taxes #wills
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