During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode #40, Ian and Suzana discussed issues surrounding the conclusion of the Family Conference, including tax matters, unapproving family members, implementing drafts and bullet-proofing your estate plan.

 

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode 39, we continued our discussion on the Family Conference, focusing on the actions to be taken in regards to non-participating family members. We also discussed the importance of documentation and defined will challenges.

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode 38, we discussed the process for ensuring a successful family conference including:

 - the introduction and outline of process;

-  the importance of caucuses and break-out sessions;

- the necessity for flexibility in the agenda and the family constitution  to  allow for the addition and revision of issues; and 

- the importance of setting a future date if the family conference has not been concluded in one day.

 

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode 37, we discussed:

- The steps that are followed during a Family Conference including:

- The need to do your "homework" before the Family Conference;

- Preparing an agenda for the Family Conference that is circulated to the members before the Family Conference;

- How to begin the Family Conference Meeting; and

- How the discussions during the Family Conference should be handled.

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode 36, we discussed:

- dealing with different family issues in a global sense;

- the family cottage and/or "special properties";

- dealing with fairness issues;

- how to equalize the gifting of a cottage; and

- the grandchildren effect.

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning, we discussed:

- special needs beneficiaries;

- what the definition of a special needs beneficiary is;

- the use of trusts for special needs beneficiaries; and

- the proper planning for special needs beneficiaries and what happens to the money/trust when the special needs beneficiary dies.

 

During Hull on Estates and Succession Planning Episode 34, we continued to discuss the need for full disclosure during the Family Conference process detailing specific situations such as extramarital relationships and how they can change estate planning, unequal treatment of children including the difference between fair and equal, the spend thrift beneficiary and the making of specific trusts to protect their inheritance and Family Law concerns such as children's spouses and if there is a family business.

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning we discussed the need for full disclosure during the Family Conference process including the fact that the parties need to know what it is that they are agreeing to, the need for full disclosure of the estate plan to the family members and the fact that the children need to know and understand the parents full feelings.  We also provided an illustration of how to work through a Family Conference.

During Hull of Estate and Succession Planning Episode 32, we continued to discuss the Elder Law Conference with an emphasis on what the Canadian Centre for Elder Law Studies is currently working on,  highlighing their past work and discussing its mission of enriching and informing the elderly in the law.

During Hull on Estate and Succession Planning Episode 31 we discussed the Various aspects of the Canadian Conference on the Elderly presented by the Canadian Centre for Elder Law including how the Courts are dealing with elder law and elder law situations.