Traditionally, estate planning meant having life insurance and a will. The modern estate plan ultimately arrives at the same conclusion—to distribute your assets and property as smoothly and tax-effectively as possible to your beneficiaries—while respecting the rights of family members under family law. Certain strategies traditionally accessed by only the wealthy are available today by more Canadians. The revised and updated 6th edition of the national best-selling You Can’t Take It With You: Common-Sense Estate Planning for Canadians (Headspring; January 2017; Retail $31.95; Paperback) gives you the goods on changes in taxes and regulations, new developments in estate mediation, new information on power of attorney for health care and on compassionate care benefits, and more content for people who are single, childless, or part of a young couple.
“Estate Planning is not something reserved for people of a certain age or the top 1%. It is as much about life as it is about death.”
You Can’t Take It With You continues to be the trusted source for the personal, financial, and legal issues involved in estate planning. “Estate Planning is not something reserved for people of a certain age or the top 1%”,” Foster explains. “It is as much about life as it is about death.” If you designate a beneficiary on an insurance policy, TFSA, or RRSP, you have already started a plan. This newest edition:
- Prepares you for reviewing your will and appointing a representative to manage your finances in case you are ever unable to make your own decisions
- Covers wills, powers of attorney for finances, personal care, advance care directives, probate, living trusts and alter ego trusts, minimizing income tax on death, life insurance, business succession planning, farms, organ and tissue donations, mental incapacity, funerals and more
- Focuses on your goals and privacy, as well as ways to minimize your income tax
- Contains strategies to maximize the value of your charitable donations
- Deals with your digital assets, digital will, and helps you get organized
- Prepares you for discussions with your advisers and family members—and may save you hundreds of dollars in taxes and fees
- Features practical examples, checklists, tips, myths and frequently asked questions
- Includes testamentary trust changes, graduated rate estate and qualified disability trust
Today’s estate plan considers your own needs and any assets you might give away while you are alive. There are a number of ways to transfer assets on death, including but not limited to, using insurance, registering assets jointly with rights of survivorship, using trusts, making charitable gifts and naming beneficiaries on registered assets. Even if your personal and financial situation is complex, your estate plan should be as simple as possible and still do the job. Your appointed executor should have the time and knowledge to carry out their duties so that as much as possible ends up in the hands of your beneficiaries. Being asked to act as an executor for a friend or family member might have once been considered an honour, but it is a time-consuming job with the potential for personal liability.
The modern estate plan is so much more than a will. It includes documents to protect your legal rights in the event you become mentally incapable of making your own decisions regarding financial matters or health care while you are alive.
You Can’t Take It With You shows how to minimize estate taxes and other expenses, and to maximize the money and assets you leave behind for your beneficiaries, ensuring financial security and peace of mind for you and your loved ones—a solid resource in in straightforward language.
Available on amazon.ca (look for the gold circle)
978-0-0689477-2-2
© 2017 — All Rights Reserved Sandra Foster — Financial Intelligence™