Wills, Trusts & Estates

Estate Planning

Are you planning to:

pass on a financial legacy to your children or a charity?
establish a charitable foundation?
structure your personal affairs to minimize personal or business tax?
establish a trust for the benefit of family or another party?
transition your business to your children or a third-party buyer?
protect your financial security or estate in light of a pending marriage, separation or divorce?
ensure that timely decisions can be made about your health and financial well-being in the event that you become unable to do so?
settle the affairs of a loved one or a friend who has passed on?

Then we can help. From the routine to the highly complex, our estate planners can assist with personal and business tax planning strategies to preserve capital and minimize tax, with the preparation of wills and powers of attorney, pre-nuptial agreements, guardianship documents, health care directives, trusts, estate freezes, income splitting arrangements, business reorganizations, and probating a will.

Estate Litigation

Are you an executor, administrator, trustee, beneficiary or heir of an estate requiring advice on your duties and rights? Are you defending a challenge to a will? Have you been wrongly excluded from a share of an estate? Are you interested in protecting your estate from litigation disputes? Do you have questions surrounding a power of attorney or health care / personal directive?

If so, our estate and trust litigation lawyers can assist. Disputes may arise over:

the legal capacity of the testator to have made the will;
situations in which an individual dies intestate (without a will);
whether or not adequate provision has been made for dependents;
the nature of the gifts or bequests intended; suspicions of undue influence or fraud in the making of the will;
bias or unfair dealings on the part of the executor;
the appointment of an administrator;
the validity of trusts or their execution;
actions taken under a power of attorney.

Our experienced estate and trust litigators can assist you with any of these concerns through consultation, negotiation, mediation or litigation.