The Estate Planner's Handbook, 5th Edition

An indispensable guide with substantial changes and important updates.

The Estate Planner's Handbook provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of many of the most important issues in the estate planning process. It is particularly recommended for lawyers, accountants and other professional advisors who are new to this growing field or who have more experience but seek a handy guide to issues outside their particular area of expertise. The book will aid estate planners in identifying issues that they need to be aware of to protect their clients' interests and their own, and provides direction on how to accomplish their clients' estate planning goals.

The fifth edition of this popular book has been updated in light of amendments to the Income Tax Act constituting the most fundamental change to the tax rules pertaining to estate planning in Canada in the past 20 years. Issues involved include: Graduated Rate Estates; Qualified Disability Trusts; rules applying at the death of a specified beneficiary of a Life Interest Trust; Charitable Donations at Death; the end of Immigration Trusts; and the ending of access to graduated rates of taxation for testamentary trusts. Other recent developments include those pertaining to Registered Disability Savings Plans; the tax on split income; charitable donations; and an increase in the lifetime capital gains exemption.

Essential topics in the estate planning process addressed in this edition include:

• Tax Planning the Will
• Pros and Cons of Alter Ego and Joint Partner Trusts
• Life Insurance Trusts
• Spousal Property Claims
• Planning for the Disabled
• U.S. Estate Tax
• Multiple Wills
• Will Substitutes
• Continuing Powers of Attorney
• Health and Personal Care by Proxy
• Basic Trust Law Concepts & Principles
• Taxation of Basic Trusts Used in Estate Planning
• Charitable Donations
• Taxation at Death
• Probate
• Dependant's Relief