“After my car accident, I went through an incredibly challenging time. Thanks to Lawyer Jun Lee and his exceptional team, I received tremendous support and strength.”
Jay Kim
Personal Injury Client
Trusted by accident victims and businesses across Ontario
Overview
Wills & estates in North York
Looking for a wills and estates lawyer in North York? Our experienced wills and estates lawyers in North York carry the entire arc of estate law, because estates are a lifecycle, not a document. The planning, the administration, and the disputes all run from one office, and each shapes the others.
The planning comes first. Wills drafted to your actual family and assets. Powers of attorney for property and personal care, the incapacity documents that matter while you are alive. Living-will instructions that spare your family the worst conversations. Trusts, from simple testamentary structures to Henson trusts protecting disabled beneficiaries' government benefits. Dual wills saving business owners tens of thousands in probate tax. And the beneficiary designations and joint-ownership decisions that determine how much of your estate ever sees probate at all.
The planning that goes beyond the basics
Then the administration. We guide executors through probate, the estate administration tax, the CRA, and the executor's year (the standard one-year period for settling the estate), or carry the administration work for them. And then the disputes: will challenges, dependant support claims, power-of-attorney abuse, and trustee conflicts, litigated by the courtroom practice behind this firm.
Based at 1110 Finch Ave W, our team brings 70+ years of combined legal experience to the area's estates. North York's ordinary houses made its population quietly wealthy, its families span continents, and in the majority of cases the plans do not exist yet.
Start with what every adult needs, because it is three documents, not one, and two of them work while you are alive.
The will speaks at death. It appoints the estate trustee, distributes the assets, names the guardians for minor children (the clause that gets young parents through our door), and establishes the trusts for beneficiaries who need structure.
Die without one and Ontario's intestacy formula decides instead: the spouse's preferential share (the first portion reserved for them by law), the statutory splits, the common-law partner who inherits nothing, and the court-appointed administration. It is a default plan written for nobody, and most of North York is currently relying on it.
The continuing power of attorney for property speaks at incapacity. The person you chose manages your accounts, your house, and your business if illness or injury takes your capacity. Without it, your family faces a court guardianship application to access your own assets for your own care, in the middle of a medical crisis. A detail that surprises everyone: an ordinary power of attorney dies at incapacity, and only the "continuing" form survives it, which is precisely the moment it is for.
The power of attorney for personal care speaks for your body. Health-care, housing, and treatment decisions go into your chosen hands. Within it sit the living-will instructions that answer in advance the questions families fracture over at bedsides: resuscitation, life support, and the line between treatment and prolonging.
Those instructions do not just guide doctors. They release your family from debating what you "would have wanted," because you said. We draft all three documents together, as the single plan they are, with the cost set out in writing before the drafting starts.
Then comes the planning beyond the basics, because North York's estates are rarely basic. The probate tax starts it. Ontario's estate administration tax takes $15 per $1,000 above the first $50,000, which is real money on house-anchored estates, and planning shrinks it lawfully.
Beneficiary designations pass registered funds outside the estate. Joint ownership is used deliberately, and never naively, because joint accounts with adult children are presumptively held in trust for the estate, the trap our litigation practice meets constantly. And dual wills for business owners keep private-company shares out of probate entirely, routinely saving five figures.
Trusts come next. Testamentary trusts (trusts created by the will) stage inheritances for young beneficiaries. Spousal trusts serve blended families, with income to the second spouse and capital preserved for the first family's children, the structure that prevents this community's most common will fight. And Henson trusts, the absolute-discretion structure, let a disabled beneficiary inherit without losing ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and other government supports that are cut off when a person's income or assets go over the limit. That is the single most important document a special-needs parent will ever sign.
Then the cross-border side. Families here hold property in Seoul, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Florida, so plans get coordinated across jurisdictions and foreign assets get addressed. The resealing and ancillary applications are handled by our administration practice when the estates mature.
And finally the lifecycle integration only a full-service firm offers. The will gets updated at the real estate closing, with the form of ownership (joint tenancy or tenants in common) decided deliberately. It gets revised at separation, because separating on its own does not cancel the gifts your will leaves your spouse. Under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act those gifts drop away only once there is a separation agreement, a court order, a family arbitration award, or three years of living apart before death. Until one of those is in place the estranged spouse can still inherit, and that is the stale-will trap our family practice closes. It gets coordinated with the shareholder agreement's buy-sell clause (which controls what happens to shares when an owner dies or leaves), and executed someday by the administration practice down the hall.
The litigation practice stands behind every document we draft, which is why we draft them to survive challenge. Capacity is documented, instructions are evidenced, and undue-influence risk is managed at the signing table rather than litigated at the courthouse.
Consultations are billed, and what a plan costs depends on your family and your assets, set out in writing before drafting begins. Home and hospital visits are available for clients who cannot come to us, in 8+ languages, because the estate-planning conversation goes better in the language your family actually has it in.
Get in touch
Looking for legal help? Speak directly with a lawyer
Tell us what happened and a lawyer will personally review your case. Personal injury consultations are free and there are no fees unless we win. For all other practice areas, a consultation fee applies.
- $30M+ recovered for injury clients
- Available 24/7, including weekends
- Service in English, Korean, and 6+ more languages
Prefer to call? (416) 661-4529
Background
Wills & estates in North York: what you need to know
This part of the city is an estate-planning case study. Post-war houses bought for five figures are now worth seven, which makes "modest" families millionaire estates. Multigenerational households hold joint ownership that happened informally decades ago, and business owners hold private shares that are their largest asset.
Families span Seoul, Tel Aviv, Manila, and Mumbai. Blended families hold first-marriage children and second-marriage homes in uneasy suspension. Parents of children with disabilities have heard of Henson trusts but never signed one.
And across all of it, the majority of adults have no will at all, relying on a statutory formula written for no one.
The will, the powers of attorney, the trusts, and the probate tax
The will. The estate trustee is appointed with alternates, because the first choice predeceases more often than anyone plans. Guardians are named for minors, specific gifts and the residue (everything not specifically gifted) are structured, and trusts are embedded where beneficiaries need staging, protection, or discretion.
The business is dealt with deliberately, and the execution formalities are met exactly, because the will that fails on formalities is the intestacy you paid to avoid.
The continuing power of attorney for property. Your finances go into chosen hands at incapacity. You choose the attorneys, the people who will act on your behalf, and you set the order in which they act. Their powers are scoped and limited where that is warranted, whether and how much they are paid is settled in the document, and safeguards are built in. Because the document is a continuing one, it survives the incapacity it exists for.
Without it, the route is a court guardianship application, with the Public Guardian and Trustee in the process, while the bills wait.
The power of attorney for personal care, and the living will. Health, housing, and care decisions are assigned. Within the document sit the instructions on resuscitation, life support, and end-of-life preferences that convert the worst family conversation into a settled question.
The living will is not a separate exotic document. It is these instructions, properly recorded, in the personal-care POA we draft as standard.
The trusts. Testamentary trusts stage inheritances, with releases at 25 and 30 instead of a lump sum to an 18-year-old.
Spousal trusts solve the blended-family equation, supporting the second spouse for life while the capital is preserved for the first family's children. Henson trusts are absolute-discretion structures that keep an inheritance from disqualifying a disabled beneficiary's ODSP and supports, the difference between a legacy that helps and one that harms.
Where your lifetime planning calls for it, we also set up trusts that start while you are alive. Trusts are not exotic. They are how wills handle real families.
The probate-tax planning. Designations on registered funds and insurance pass outside the estate. Joint ownership is used deliberately, with true survivorship intended and documented, never the naive adult-child joint account the law presumes back into the estate.
And dual wills serve business owners: the primary will is probated for the assets that need it, and the secondary will covers private shares that do not. It is the structure that routinely saves owners tens of thousands in estate administration tax.
Capacity, guardianship, and safeguarding the documents. Capacity is every document's prerequisite, assessed and documented at signing on the matters that warrant it. Guardianship applications are pursued where incapacity arrived before the POAs did.
And POA abuse, where the attorney helps themselves, gets investigated and litigated by the practice that polices these documents after they are signed.
Not sure where you stand? One conversation will tell you.
The plans by family type: what yours probably needs
Young parents need the starter plan: wills naming guardians, staged trusts, and POAs, priced up front and signed in weeks. The house-rich household needs probate-tax planning, the form of property ownership reviewed, and designations aligned.
The blended family needs spousal trusts, the mutual-will questions answered, and the first family's capital protected without starving the second spouse. The business owner needs dual wills, the shareholder agreement's buy-sell coordinated, and the corporate practice in the room.
The special-needs parent needs the Henson trust, trustee succession that outlives you, and ODSP preserved. The cross-border family needs jurisdictions coordinated, foreign assets addressed, and a plan that works on both ends of the flight.
The separated and the widowed need documents updated this season, because the stale will and the unchanged designation are the estate disasters we litigate for other families.
By the numbers
Wills & estates facts every North York family should know
The documents, the defaults, and the structures.
A complete plan is three documents
The will speaks at death. The continuing power of attorney for property speaks at incapacity, and without it your family needs a court application to reach your own assets. The power of attorney for personal care, with living-will instructions, speaks for your body and releases your family from the bedside debate.An ordinary POA dies exactly when you need it
Only the continuing form survives incapacity. That is the detail separating real incapacity planning from a bank form.Intestacy is a plan written for nobody
Die without a will and the formula decides: the spouse's fixed first share, the statutory division of the rest between the spouse and the children, and common-law partners inheriting nothing. Most adults here are relying on exactly that default.Probate tax is real money on house-anchored estates
The tax runs at $15 per $1,000 above $50,000. Lawful planning through designations, deliberate joint ownership, and dual wills for business owners shrinks it by five figures on the estates this area actually has.Joint accounts with adult children are a trap
The law presumes the child holds the account in trust for the estate. That makes the "probate shortcut" the thing that generates more estate litigation than almost anything else.Henson trusts change disabled beneficiaries' lives
The Henson trust gives trustees full control over how the money is used, so it does not count as the beneficiary's own asset and they keep their ODSP. It is the most important document a special-needs parent signs.Separation doesn't revoke your will
The estranged spouse can remain executor and beneficiary until the documents change. Close the stale-will trap at separation, rather than discovering it at death.Documents drafted to survive challenge
Capacity documented, instructions evidenced, and influence risk managed at signing. The litigation practice behind our drafting knows exactly how wills get attacked.
The conversation everyone defers
The two families this office meets every week
Every week this office meets the same two families. One sat down years ago for an afternoon and three documents, and now, amid grief, simply executes a plan: the accounts pass, the house transfers, the children are provided for, and the instructions answer the hospital's questions.
The other deferred. That family now navigates guardianship applications, intestacy formulas, joint-account litigation, and the question no one can answer because no one was asked.
The difference was never wealth or sophistication. It was one appointment, made or not. We take those appointments at Finch and Keele, in the languages local families speak, and at your home when health or mobility makes travelling hard.
The deadlines here are shorter than most people expect.
Step by step
What to do, step by step
- 01
Stop waiting for "settled"
The plan documents today's life and amends cheaply later. Unsettled is what wills are for. - 02
Inventory honestly
Assets, debts, designations, joint accounts, the business, and the foreign property. The plan is only as good as the picture. - 03
Choose people, then backups
Executor, attorneys, guardians, and the alternates every role needs. - 04
Have the hard conversations once
The end-of-life instructions, the unequal gifts explained, the guardianship asked. On paper they are settled. Unsaid, they are litigation. - 05
Align the designations
Check the RRSP, TFSA, and insurance beneficiaries against the will, because contradictions are lawsuits. - 06
Make joint ownership deliberate
Document survivorship intent, or unwind the naive arrangement before it becomes the estate fight. - 07
Protect the disabled beneficiary properly
Use the Henson trust, not the disinheritance "for their own good" and not the sibling's informal promise. - 08
Coordinate the business
The dual wills, the buy-sell, and the corporate records book that buyers and executors both need. - 09
Update at every trigger
Marriage, separation, births, deaths, the sale, the move. Quick revisions weigh against five-figure consequences. - 10
Bring it to a North York wills and estates lawyer this month
The consultation is billed, the cost of the plan depends on your situation, and capacity can close the window without warning.
Our process
How our North York wills & estates lawyers build and run your plan
- 01
The consultation, the inventory and the map
The full picture comes first: your family, including the blended, common-law, estranged, and overseas branches the documents must handle; your assets, from the house and the registered funds to the business and the foreign property; and your wishes. Then the plan gets mapped, covering which documents, which structures, and which designations, with the cost set out in writing before anything drafts. - 02
The plan drafted, and built to survive
The will is built to your actual situation. Trustees and guardians are chosen with backups, and trusts are structured where beneficiaries need them, whether staged inheritances, spousal trusts, or Henson trusts. The business is handled with dual wills where shares warrant, and the residue clause (the catch-all covering everything not specifically gifted) catches what life adds later. The POAs are drafted as the working documents they are, with powers scoped, attorneys sequenced, and living-will instructions recorded. Then the whole plan is signed properly: capacity noted, witnesses correct, and the execution file built so the plan defends itself decades later. - 03
The rest of the plan put in place
Next come the pieces beyond the documents. Beneficiary designations are aligned, because an RRSP that contradicts the will is a lawsuit waiting. Joint ownership is reviewed and made deliberate. The corporate interests are coordinated with the shareholder agreement's buy-sell, the form of property ownership is confirmed, and the foreign assets are addressed. Originals are stored safely, with copies where your executor will actually find them. - 04
The plan that stays current, and the firm that stays
Reviews happen at life's trigger points, including marriage, separation (with the update made that season), births, the business sale, and the move, handled as quick revisions priced up front. And when the plan someday runs, the same firm administers it through our estate administration practice, defends it through our litigation practice, and carries your family through it, in the language they speak.
Important
Estate planning's deadline is unannounced. Capacity is the prerequisite for every document on this page, and the diagnosis, the stroke, or the accident closes the window without notice. After that, the options are court guardianships and litigation instead of signatures. The plan takes weeks, and the window is not guaranteed. Whatever your age and health, the right time is while the question is easy. Contact a wills and estates lawyer in North York this month.
Every situation is different. Yours deserves a specific answer.
Know the pitfalls
Where estate plans go wrong, and how we keep yours from joining them
The no-plan plan
Intestacy's formula, the court's administrator, and the common-law partner with nothing. We answer with the only fix there is: the documents, signed while signing is possible.The bank-form POA
The ordinary power of attorney dies at incapacity, and the family discovers it at the stroke. We answer with the continuing POA, drafted as the working document it is.The naive joint account
The "probate shortcut" with the adult child is presumed back into the estate by law, and then the siblings litigate. We answer with deliberate, documented arrangements, or none at all.The contradicting designation
The will leaves everything to the spouse, and the RRSP still names the ex. We answer with the alignment review every plan here includes.The kit will
The template botched the residue clause, skipped the formalities, or ignored the business. We answer by drafting to your actual life, and with the execution file that survives the challenge templates invite.The frozen plan
Drafted at thirty and unread since, with predeceased executors, sold assets, and the estranged spouse still inheriting. We answer with trigger-point reviews, quick, and the cheapest insurance in this entire practice.
In the news
The great wealth transfer meets the great planning gap
The demographics are straightforward. The largest intergenerational wealth transfer in Canadian history is underway, much of it in exactly the house-anchored, business-holding, cross-border estates this area contains.
Meanwhile survey after survey confirms the gap. Most Canadian adults have no will, fewer have powers of attorney, and the courts process the consequences daily in guardianship applications, intestacies, and the joint-account and dependant-support litigation that fills the estates lists under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act.
The legal landscape keeps adjusting, through probate-tax thresholds, small-estate streamlining, and virtual execution norms. But the gap's cause never changes: the conversation deferred.
For North York's families the takeaway is the practice's whole premise. The transfer is coming on the calendar's schedule, not yours, and the difference between an orderly estate and a courthouse one is three documents and an afternoon.
Rather ask someone who handles these matters every week?
Why VC Lawyers
Why hire a wills & estates lawyer in North York at VC Lawyers
The whole arc under one roof
Planned here, administered here, and defended here. It is the only model where the drafting lawyer's incentives and the executor's reality meet.Drafted by a firm that litigates estates
Capacity documented, influence risk managed, and instructions evidenced. We know exactly how wills get attacked, so ours are built not to be.The incapacity documents taken seriously
Continuing POAs scoped and sequenced, and living-will instructions recorded. These are the documents that protect you while alive, drafted with the weight they deserve.Structures matched to real families
Henson trusts for disabled beneficiaries, spousal trusts for blended families, staged trusts for young heirs, and dual wills for business owners, priced in writing and plainly explained.The planning beyond the documents
Designations aligned, joint ownership made deliberate, and probate tax lawfully shrunk. The plan is a system, not a binder.Lifecycle integration
Updated at the closing, revised at the separation, and coordinated with the shareholder agreement, by the practices down the hall that handle each.Multilingual service
English, Korean (한국어), Hebrew, Mandarin, and more, with home and hospital visits when the planning cannot wait for mobility.
Choosing wisely
How to choose the right wills & estates lawyer in North York
Before hiring any firm, ask a few hard questions. Do they draft all three documents as one plan, and take the POAs as seriously as the will? Can they build the real structures, such as Henson trusts, spousal trusts, and dual wills, or just templates?
Then ask about the rest of the plan. Is everything beyond the documents handled, covering designations, joint ownership, and the probate-tax math? Are the fees set out in writing before the work starts? Will the same firm administer and, if tested, defend what it drafted? And do they make the conversation easy enough that you will actually have it?
At VC Lawyers, the answer to each is yes, from an office in the heart of North York, with fees confirmed in writing before we begin, in your language.
Still weighing what to do next? That is what a first conversation is for.
“When my mother suffered a serious head injury, I was devastated. After meeting Lawyer Jae Hyon Cho, my family was able to receive substantial compensation.”
Minkyung Park
Personal Injury Client
“Avi Vaturi was professional, responsive, and thorough. When the transaction became complex, his calm communication and practical solutions navigated us to a smooth close.”
Jordan Glaser
Real Estate Co-Counsel
“Mr. Avi Vaturi did a fantastic job. The whole process was seamless — timely, detailed, and professional from start to finish.”
Howard Huang
Real Estate Client
“He helped me with both my car accident case and the buying and selling of my home. Everything was handled professionally and efficiently.”
Yoon Jung
Personal Injury & Real Estate Client
“Jae Cho was great to deal with and very attentive to my case. His associate Sunny was also very helpful. I would highly recommend.”
Jordan Ungerman
Personal Injury Client
“Their professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to clients truly stand out. Whether handling urgent matters or guiding me through complex issues, the team delivered.”
Charles Hong
Long-time Client
“It has been my pleasure to work with Jae Cho and his team. Knowledgeable, clear in their explanations, and the process was smooth and stress-free.”
Joanne Jeong
Real Estate Client
“Vaturi & Cho LLP is an outstanding law firm. They explain even complex matters clearly, and their dedication to achieving the best outcomes is truly impressive.”
Jong Ko
Client
“The team was not only knowledgeable but also very kind and attentive throughout the entire process. Highly recommended.”
Tobi
Client
“After my car accident, I went through an incredibly challenging time. Thanks to Lawyer Jun Lee and his exceptional team, I received tremendous support and strength.”
Jay Kim
Personal Injury Client
“When my mother suffered a serious head injury, I was devastated. After meeting Lawyer Jae Hyon Cho, my family was able to receive substantial compensation.”
Minkyung Park
Personal Injury Client
“Avi Vaturi was professional, responsive, and thorough. When the transaction became complex, his calm communication and practical solutions navigated us to a smooth close.”
Jordan Glaser
Real Estate Co-Counsel
“Mr. Avi Vaturi did a fantastic job. The whole process was seamless — timely, detailed, and professional from start to finish.”
Howard Huang
Real Estate Client
“He helped me with both my car accident case and the buying and selling of my home. Everything was handled professionally and efficiently.”
Yoon Jung
Personal Injury & Real Estate Client
“Jae Cho was great to deal with and very attentive to my case. His associate Sunny was also very helpful. I would highly recommend.”
Jordan Ungerman
Personal Injury Client
“Their professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to clients truly stand out. Whether handling urgent matters or guiding me through complex issues, the team delivered.”
Charles Hong
Long-time Client
“It has been my pleasure to work with Jae Cho and his team. Knowledgeable, clear in their explanations, and the process was smooth and stress-free.”
Joanne Jeong
Real Estate Client
“Vaturi & Cho LLP is an outstanding law firm. They explain even complex matters clearly, and their dedication to achieving the best outcomes is truly impressive.”
Jong Ko
Client
“The team was not only knowledgeable but also very kind and attentive throughout the entire process. Highly recommended.”
Tobi
Client
“After my car accident, I went through an incredibly challenging time. Thanks to Lawyer Jun Lee and his exceptional team, I received tremendous support and strength.”
Jay Kim
Personal Injury Client
“When my mother suffered a serious head injury, I was devastated. After meeting Lawyer Jae Hyon Cho, my family was able to receive substantial compensation.”
Minkyung Park
Personal Injury Client
“Avi Vaturi was professional, responsive, and thorough. When the transaction became complex, his calm communication and practical solutions navigated us to a smooth close.”
Jordan Glaser
Real Estate Co-Counsel
“Mr. Avi Vaturi did a fantastic job. The whole process was seamless — timely, detailed, and professional from start to finish.”
Howard Huang
Real Estate Client
“He helped me with both my car accident case and the buying and selling of my home. Everything was handled professionally and efficiently.”
Yoon Jung
Personal Injury & Real Estate Client
“Jae Cho was great to deal with and very attentive to my case. His associate Sunny was also very helpful. I would highly recommend.”
Jordan Ungerman
Personal Injury Client
“Their professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to clients truly stand out. Whether handling urgent matters or guiding me through complex issues, the team delivered.”
Charles Hong
Long-time Client
“It has been my pleasure to work with Jae Cho and his team. Knowledgeable, clear in their explanations, and the process was smooth and stress-free.”
Joanne Jeong
Real Estate Client
“Vaturi & Cho LLP is an outstanding law firm. They explain even complex matters clearly, and their dedication to achieving the best outcomes is truly impressive.”
Jong Ko
Client
“The team was not only knowledgeable but also very kind and attentive throughout the entire process. Highly recommended.”
Tobi
Client
“After my car accident, I went through an incredibly challenging time. Thanks to Lawyer Jun Lee and his exceptional team, I received tremendous support and strength.”
Jay Kim
Personal Injury Client
“When my mother suffered a serious head injury, I was devastated. After meeting Lawyer Jae Hyon Cho, my family was able to receive substantial compensation.”
Minkyung Park
Personal Injury Client
“Avi Vaturi was professional, responsive, and thorough. When the transaction became complex, his calm communication and practical solutions navigated us to a smooth close.”
Jordan Glaser
Real Estate Co-Counsel
“Mr. Avi Vaturi did a fantastic job. The whole process was seamless — timely, detailed, and professional from start to finish.”
Howard Huang
Real Estate Client
“He helped me with both my car accident case and the buying and selling of my home. Everything was handled professionally and efficiently.”
Yoon Jung
Personal Injury & Real Estate Client
“Jae Cho was great to deal with and very attentive to my case. His associate Sunny was also very helpful. I would highly recommend.”
Jordan Ungerman
Personal Injury Client
“Their professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to clients truly stand out. Whether handling urgent matters or guiding me through complex issues, the team delivered.”
Charles Hong
Long-time Client
“It has been my pleasure to work with Jae Cho and his team. Knowledgeable, clear in their explanations, and the process was smooth and stress-free.”
Joanne Jeong
Real Estate Client
“Vaturi & Cho LLP is an outstanding law firm. They explain even complex matters clearly, and their dedication to achieving the best outcomes is truly impressive.”
Jong Ko
Client
“The team was not only knowledgeable but also very kind and attentive throughout the entire process. Highly recommended.”
Tobi
Client
Our team
Meet your North York legal team
Our lawyers bring decades of combined experience across the whole arc, with plans drafted, estates administered, and disputes resolved. We use the structures North York's families actually need and the candour the conversation deserves. Every client at VC Lawyers works with a dedicated North York wills and estates lawyer from the first inventory to the documents' eventual work.
Maurice Vaturi
Senior Counsel
Avi Vaturi
Partner
Jae Hyon Cho
Co-Managing Partner
Jun Ki Lee
Associate
Allan Weiss
Associate
Who handles your file
The people on your matter
Avi Vaturi, Partner
Senior counsel for complex plans, including business owners, trusts, and cross-border estates, and the litigation that tests documents.Jae Hyon Cho, Co-Managing Partner
Experienced counsel guiding North York's families, including the Korean-speaking community, through planning, administration, and the conversations between.Jun Ki Lee, Associate
Dedicated associate handling drafting, executions, designation reviews, and plan updates across North York and the GTA.Allan Weiss, Associate
Experienced lawyer providing strategic guidance on estate structures, capacity matters, and high-value planning.
Not sure where you stand? One conversation will tell you.
Key metrics
In the numbers
- Years combined legal experience
- 70+
- Languages served
- 8+
- Documents in every complete plan
- 3
- Fees set out before work begins
- Written
Talk to us
Three documents, one plan, and a conversation easier than you think
Bring your family picture, your asset sketch, and your questions. We will map the plan your situation actually needs, covering the wills, the POAs, any trusts, and the designations. We confirm the cost in writing, and have you signed and protected within weeks. Updating old documents, planning around a business, or providing for a child with a disability? Same meeting, same candour.
Office, video, or home and hospital visits across North York and the GTA.
Frequently asked questions
We answered all
What documents do I actually need, and is a will enough?
A complete plan is three documents. The will covers your estate at death, including trustee, guardians, gifts, and trusts. The continuing power of attorney for property covers your finances at incapacity, and without it your family needs a court guardianship to reach your own accounts for your own care. The power of attorney for personal care, with living-will instructions, puts your health decisions in chosen hands and answers the end-of-life questions yourself. Two of the three protect you while alive, which is why "just a will" is half a plan.What happens if I die without a will in Ontario?
The intestacy formula decides. Your married spouse takes a preferential share (a fixed first portion set by law) and splits the rest with children by formula. Common-law partners inherit nothing under the formula, and their remedies are litigation rather than inheritance. The court appoints an administrator through a slower, bonded process, and minor children's shares involve the government's oversight. It is a plan written for nobody, and the majority of adults here are currently relying on it. The alternative is weeks away.What's a living will, and is it the same as a power of attorney for personal care?
The living will is the instructions inside the personal-care POA. It records your wishes on resuscitation, life support, and end-of-life care, guiding your attorney and your doctors, and releasing your family from the bedside debate over what you "would have wanted," because you said. We draft those instructions into every personal-care POA as standard. The conversation takes minutes and spares your family the worst version of it.How does my family avoid probate, and what's this dual-wills strategy?
Lawfully and partially. Beneficiary designations pass registered funds and insurance outside the estate, and true joint ownership passes by survivorship, used deliberately with the warning in the next answer. For business owners, dual wills (the primary probated for assets that need it, the secondary covering private-company shares that do not) routinely save five figures of estate administration tax, charged at $15 per $1,000 above $50,000. What never works is a naive shortcut that trades a tax problem for a litigation problem. We architect the lawful version on every plan.Should I just put my house or accounts in joint names with my adult child?
Almost never naively. The law presumes an adult child on a parent's account holds it in trust for the estate, so the "probate shortcut" becomes the estate fight, with siblings litigating what Mom intended. Where joint ownership genuinely fits, we document the survivorship intention so it survives scrutiny. Where it does not, designations and dual wills usually achieve the goal without arming the litigation. This single question generates more estate disputes than almost any other, so ask it here first.I have a child with a disability. How do I leave them an inheritance without destroying their benefits?
Use a Henson trust, the absolute-discretion structure Ontario law recognizes. The inheritance is held by trustees with complete discretion, so it does not count as the beneficiary's asset and ODSP and other means-tested supports continue, while the trust quietly improves their life. Pair it with trustee succession that outlives you and coordination with the rest of the plan. It is the most important document a special-needs parent signs, and one of the most commonly missing. We draft them as a core practice.We're a blended family. How do we provide for each other without disinheriting our kids?
Use a spousal trust, which solves the equation that breaks kitchen-table wills. The surviving spouse is supported with income, home, and security for life, and the capital is preserved and passes to each side's children afterward. That replaces the default disaster, where everything goes to the survivor who later leaves it all to one side. Add aligned designations and clear-eyed conversations, and the area's most common will fight gets prevented at the drafting table.I own a business. What does my estate plan need that others don't?
Three coordinated pieces. Dual wills provide the probate-tax structure for private shares. The shareholder agreement's buy-sell gets aligned with the will, because the documents must tell one story, and our corporate practice drafts both. And the estate trustee is equipped for a business, with powers, authority, and the corporate records book our governance practice keeps current, because your executor inherits your paperwork's condition. The owner's plan is a system, and we build it as one.Does getting married, divorced, or separated change my will automatically?
Dangerously incompletely. Marriage no longer revokes wills in Ontario, following recent reform. Divorce revokes gifts to the former spouse. But separation without divorce historically left the estranged spouse inheriting, and designation rules differ again. The safe rule is that every relationship change triggers a document review that season, the quick update against the estate disaster our litigation practice otherwise meets.My parent is losing capacity and has no POA. What now?
Two paths, with urgency on both. If capacity remains sufficient, and the legal threshold is lower than many assume, the documents can still be signed, sometimes with a capacity assessment documenting it, and we assess honestly. If capacity is gone, the path is a court guardianship application, which is slower, costlier, and supervised, and which our practice handles when prevention's window has closed. Either way, act this week rather than this quarter, because capacity declines on its own schedule.How often should I update my plan, and what does an update cost?
Update at the trigger points: marriage, separation, births, a death among the people you named (executors and guardians do sometimes die before you do), the business sale, the big move, and the new property. Read the whole plan through every few years as well. Updates are quick work, whether amendments or fresh documents as fits, priced to the change and confirmed in writing. The frozen thirty-year-old plan is the expensive option, just deferred.What does a will or full estate plan cost in North York?
It depends on the matter and the situation. Consultations are billed, and the plan itself is priced to its actual complexity. A simple will and POA package sits at one end, and full plans with couples, trusts, dual wills, and cross-border coordination sit at the other. Whatever the figure, you have it in writing before drafting starts. Against the intestacy, the guardianship application, or the will challenge, it is the cheapest legal work your family will ever buy, and the only kind with an unscheduled deadline.
North York wills & estates lawyers
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Between the intestacy formula written for nobody, the bank-form POA that dies at incapacity, the joint account the siblings will litigate, and the conversation everyone keeps deferring, estate problems share one trait. Every single one was preventable by signatures that took an afternoon. The home visit is available if health makes it kind, and the plan, once signed, turns the worst week of your family's future into a process instead of a crisis. Consultations are billed, and the cost depends on the complexity of the matter. Fees are set out in writing before work begins.
Service areas
North York wills & estates lawyers serving every neighbourhood
From our office at Finch Ave W and Keele, we plan and administer estates across all of North York, including Willowdale, Don Mills, Downsview, York Mills, Bathurst Manor, Lansing, Newtonbrook, Bayview Village, Flemingdon Park, Jane and Finch, Yorkdale and Glen Park, Clanton Park, Parkwoods, and Victoria Village. We also serve neighbouring communities in Vaughan, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Markham, Scarborough, Etobicoke, and Downtown Toronto.
Whether it is a young family in Downsview naming guardians, a business owner in Willowdale structuring dual wills, a special-needs parent anywhere in the area finally signing the Henson trust, or a cross-border estate spanning continents, our North York wills and estates lawyers build the plan. We offer office, video, home, and hospital meetings, with parking and TTC access (Finch West Station) at our office.
Our office is at 1110 Finch Ave W #310, near Finch and Keele, with parking on site. By transit, take the Finch West LRT or the bus network connecting from Finch West Station on Line 1. If your injuries or circumstances make travel difficult, we come to you at home or in hospital, anywhere in North York.
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