After many rich and satisfying years at O'Sullivan Estate Lawyers, it is with mixed emotions that I take my departure from the firm for a new phase of my career as in-house counsel at a major trust company (watch my LinkedIn page for a further announcement in September). While I am excited by my new opportunity, I am also very sad to leave all my current fabulous and knowledgeable colleagues and co-workers.

As might be expected, my departure is causing me to reflect on my over 20 years in private practice as a trust and estate lawyer. I've also been blogging with the firm for over 10 years, since we started the blog, and we have covered a wide range of topics in that time.

For my very last blog at O'Sullivan Estate Lawyers, I've chosen to reflect on a few lessons learned in my trust and estate practice. I hope my insights will be of benefit to you.

In this practice area, perhaps more than many, we constantly see examples of people who "planned to fail" because they failed to plan (and for those of you interested, this saying has been attributed to both Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill, but it appears 1970s self-help author Alan Lakein may in fact be the originator).

Proper planning is essential for anyone who wants to set their estate administration up for success, but this is particularly important for those with complex situations (such as second marriages – see our blog on "Estate Planning for a Second Spouse"), estranged family members, or who have high value, complex or cross-border assets.

Estates are being administered all the time where a lot more legal advice and legal fees are incurred because the deceased either did not plan effectively or did not plan at all.

For example, I assisted one family with an estate administration where the deceased and their spouse died together in an accident, both without wills, and owning an active business. This very sad and unfortunate situation resulted in a sharp decrease in the value of the business since no one had any legal authority to run it for several months while awaiting probate for both estates.

In another situation, a couple used an online will kit from the U.S. (while resident in Ontario with no ties to the U.S.). The ambiguous wording in the wills they prepared and signed led to litigation as family members fought over the true intentions of the deceased.

In other situations, a deceased's planning has been the product of either wishful thinking or not enough consideration of the personalities of and relationships among the family members involved. I've assisted executors who were siblings and appointed as co-executors who were incredibly hostile to each other before their parent died. That hostility carried over into the estate administration, resulting in increased time, complexity and legal fees as they battled out every detail.

Sometimes, a deceased has done good planning, but then unfortunately not updated their estate plan for many years and circumstances have changed or evolved (which can be challenging as noted in our blog "Preparing A Will is Only the First Step—Keeping it Updated is the Challenge").

I have seen more than one situation where a surviving spouse (usually a second spouse) was forced to make a dependant's relief claim because their deceased spouse hadn't updated their estate plan to take into account their long-term relationship.

Typically, spouses made a plan (sometimes including a domestic contract) early on in the relationship, when the finances of each were truly quite separate. As their relationship matured, deepened and became more intertwined, the spouse with more financial assets took on more of their shared expenses, often for several years, but did not update their estate plan to reflect the surviving spouse's increasing financial dependency and need to be supported from their estate (blended families really do require more planning – see our blog "Estate Planning Considerations for Blended Families").

Finally, there are the situations where the deceased's planning would have benefited from additional expert guidance or increased cooperation and integration between their professional advisors (as discussed in our blogs "Simplicity vs Oversimplicity in Estate Planning" and "Beneficiary Designations: When Less is Not More").

I have assisted many executors with non-resident estates where the deceased was resident in a foreign jurisdiction, but has significant assets in Ontario. Notwithstanding this, no thought was given to obtaining Ontario legal advice to ensure that the estate administration would proceed as smoothly and cost-effectively as possible, resulting in delays due to incompatibility of probate laws and additional Ontario probate fees (Estate Administration Tax), as well as increased legal fees.

In my experience, good legal advice in all of the situations above would have prevented a lot of headaches, family disputes, delays and unintended consequences.

I hope you continue to enjoy the firm's blog for many years to come. I wish to thank Margaret O'Sullivan for the many excellent years I have had at O'Sullivan Estate Lawyers. I look forward to staying in touch (and, of course, I will keep reading the blog)!

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.