Blog
We share updates and analysis about professional best practices, new legal decisions, regulatory changes, and other capacity-related issues.
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Understanding and Appreciating Joint Substitute Decision Maker Appointments or Appointing Different Substitute Decision Makers for Property/Health
Read more: Understanding and Appreciating Joint Substitute Decision Maker Appointments or Appointing Different Substitute Decision Makers for Property/HealthNathan Spaling Lawyer, Social Service Worker & Founder of the Capacity Clinic Appointing substitute decision makers do not often have the same appeal as the attention paid to selecting an estate trustee. In my experience as an estate planning lawyer, I would often have to provide considerable information about the potential impact of these substitute…
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Invalid Gifting by POA to Family
Read more: Invalid Gifting by POA to FamilyTO GIFT OR NOT TO GIFT, THAT IS THE [INTENTION] What options are available to reduce the amount of probate tax owed upon death? This blog is not a one page review of all resources available to minimize probate tax owing. Instead, it is to emphasize caution if the POA for Management of Property…
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S2 E1: ID Verification & Capacity
Read more: S2 E1: ID Verification & CapacityWelcome to season two of Capacity Conversations: Your Thoughts or Mine! We are thrilled to be back with brand new episodes as well as some exciting guests. Today, we are joined by Jay Krushell and Grant Goldrich of Treefort Technologies to talk all about ID verification and capacity. The Treefort project was started in 2017, when Jay…
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Voiding Another Real Estate Transfer
Read more: Voiding Another Real Estate TransferAlert to Independent Legal Advice When providing any advice to a Decision-maker, it is critical (among other things) to probe and understand the Decision-maker’s potential dependencies in order to document risks of undue influence. Sandu v Sandu, 2023 BCSC 323 (“Sandu”) is one of the most recent examples. A Closer look at Sandu: Nirmal Sandu…
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Stickhandling a Contentious Client
Read more: Stickhandling a Contentious ClientAs a service provider of any kind, have you ever been requested to help an existing client who is in a highly contentious situation? How did you uncover this, and how did you document your next steps? Regardless of the sector that you operate within Ross Estate (Re), 2023 BCSC 467 (CanLII)[1] highlights some nice…
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Proving Incapacity or Undue Influence
Read more: Proving Incapacity or Undue InfluenceFinancial Advisor & Pastor’s Evidence Saves the Day “It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove.” – Denzel Washington, in Training Day, 2001 I am doubtful, but remain hopeful, that Klassen v Estate of John Arnold Wiers, 2018 SKQB 32 (CanLII) (“Klassen v Estate of John Wiers”) may spur the Training Day sequel…
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Invalid Real Estate Transfer
Read more: Invalid Real Estate TransferA Retrospective Opinion Defeats a Contemporaneous Opinion In most cases, the common law has given more weight to evidence provided by the person that carries out the contemporaneous interaction (in other words, the live or in real-time meeting/evaluation before the decision is made) over retrospective capacity evidence (in other words, when an opinion is formed…
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Season One Finale: Reviewing Current Decision-Making Capacity Topics Heading into 2023
Read more: Season One Finale: Reviewing Current Decision-Making Capacity Topics Heading into 2023Welcome to the season one finale of Capacity Conversations! Today, we are excited to have a full house as we welcome the Capacity Clinic’s medical director Dr. Shulman and advisory board member Dr. Pachet back to the podcast, as well as our CEO Nathan Spaling and our chief legal officer Jasmine Sweatman! In this episode,…
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Episode Six: Capacity and the Court: The Role of Expert Witnesses
Read more: Episode Six: Capacity and the Court: The Role of Expert WitnessesWelcome back to Capacity Conversations! Today, we welcome the Capacity Clinic’s advisory board member Dr. Pachet back to the podcast, as well as our CEO Nathan Spaling! In this episode, we’ll be chatting about the role of expert witnesses in capacity cases. We’ll touch on examples where an expert witness may be called to court,…
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Episode Five: Capacity, Dementia, and Delirium
Read more: Episode Five: Capacity, Dementia, and DeliriumWelcome back to Capacity Conversations! Today, we welcome the Capacity Clinic’s medical director and advisory board member back to the podcast to chat about how dementia and delirium can impact a person’s decision-making capacity. In this episode, we’ll breakdown what dementia and delirium are, how they’re connected, and the key differences between the two. Besides…
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Episode Four: The Role and Value of Retrospective Capacity Assessments
Read more: Episode Four: The Role and Value of Retrospective Capacity AssessmentsWelcome back to another episode of Capacity Conversations! Today, we are fortunate to be joined again by the Capacity Clinic’s medical director, Dr. Richard Shulman and Capacity Clinic advisory board member, Dr. Arlin Pachet. In this episode, we’ll be diving into the role and value of retrospective capacity assessments while also detailing the difference between…
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Episode Three: Capacity is Task Specific
Read more: Episode Three: Capacity is Task SpecificWelcome back to another episode of Capacity Conversations! Thank you for joining us as we talk more about the circumstances where a capacity assessment may be needed and how they are done. Capacity assessments aren’t a “one-size-fits-all” situation. In other words, one standard capacity evaluation cannot work for each type of decision because each decision…