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The Pour-Over Clause In A Cross-Border Context

The Pour-Over Clause In A Cross-Border Context

With all the career and job opportunities available, many Canadians and Americans choose to cross the border to pursue new goals. Providing trust and estate planning advice to Canadians living in the United States and Americans living in Canada is no longer a rare situation. Where an individual has spent part of his life in one country and part in the other, his will and power of attorney may have been executed in one country but not amended following the arrival in the other country. This can pose problems when an estate plan crafted to meet U.S. rules is applied to a U.S. citizen that relocated to Canada and remained in Canada for the balance of his life. Caroline Rheaume, a member of the Quebec Bar, focuses on pour-over provisions in trusts, frequently used by U.S. estate planners, but which encounter enforceability problems in several Canadian provinces. The takeaway is simple. When in Canada do as the Canadians do, or your legatees may find that you died intestate.

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Canada Adopts Changes to Trust & Estate Taxation Rules

On January 1, new income tax rules came into effect regarding the Canadian taxation of trusts and estates. Use of graduated tax rates for multiple trust, charitable donation credits for estates, and allocation of gains at death are the targets. Amanda Stacey, Nicole D’Aoust, and Rahul Sharma of Miller Thomson LLP, Toronto explain.

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