Micheal Goldberg's article "A Whole New World - Time For Your Clients to Revisit Their Will (And Trust) Planning" appeared in the January 2015 edition of The Estate Planner.
In 2013 the Department of Finance proposed to eliminate most tax benefits that have traditionally been available to certain trusts formed on the death of an individual (in this article referred to as "Testamentary Trusts") so that Testamentary Trusts, which include an individual's estate, as well as trusts created under the terms of an individual's will for his or her spouse and/or other persons, would be taxed in a manner similar to trusts that are not Testamentary Trusts.
Notwithstanding much critical commentary, the 2014 budget announced plans to implement the proposals. By December 16, 2014, the entire legislative process had run its course and Bill C-43, Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 2, was enacted as the law of the land, though its application in connection with Testamentary Trusts will be delayed until 2016.
As bad as the original proposals were thought to be, the final legislation not only implemented the proposals but went far beyond their original scope in ways that will broadly and generally negatively impact traditional will planning as well as planning involving so-called "life time trusts"...[Download a copy of Michael's article in PDF here.]
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