Protect and transfer your wealth
The estate planning process provides a chance for you and your loved ones to openly discuss illness, death and your final wishes. Documenting the details of how you want your estate to take care of others and create new opportunities is the easiest way to avoid confusion, stress, family disputes and a host of avoidable expenses that would erode the value of your estate.
As part of MD’s team of specialists, we work with Scotiatrust® who has been helping Canadian families preserve and transfer their wealth for over 100 years. Scotiatrust’s Estate and Trust specialists are here to help you and your family prepare by documenting your wishes and supporting your estate plan to help ensure that your:
- assets are distributed in accordance with your wishes;
- minimizing taxes paid from the estate in order to protect its value;
- assets are transferred to your beneficiaries at the right time, in the most tax-efficient way.
Beyond wealth transfer
Estate and trust planning is about more than transferring wealth. As part of your Total Wealth Plan, it helps connect your estate goals to your broader financial strategy, supporting your family, your values and the legacy you want to leave behind. Working with your MD Advisor and Estate & Trust specialists, you can create a plan that reflects what matters most.
A good plan is the sum of its parts
Estate planning
Estate planning is an important part of your overall financial plan and is connected to many of the decisions you'll make throughout your lifetime. For example, we’ll consider the types of assets you own, the tax consequences of wealth transfer and how you want to fund your legacy plan. This way, you’ll be able to balance the rewards you want to enjoy today with the legacy you wish to leave behind.
Estate settlement
Settling an estate can place significant administrative responsibilities on your loved ones. A professional executor can help manage the complexities of the process, from distributing assets and closing accounts to paying final tax obligations.
Trust planning
Trusts can be created at any time for a wide variety of purposes. Some common goals of a trust are to provide protection, asset management and security for your loved ones. We help identify opportunities where trusts may support your broader wealth and estate planning goals, including asset protection, management, and the long-term care of loved ones.
Trust administration
Administering a trust can be complex and time-consuming. Appointing a professional trustee or co-trustee, such as Scotiatrust, can help provide objective oversight and support the effective administration of the trust.
A well-designed estate plan can ensure your wealth, including corporate assets, is distributed according to your wishes. Regular reviews can help reduce administrative and tax burdens for your loved ones.
Have you considered the legacy you’ll leave behind?
Contact an MD AdvisorScotiatrust offers a full range of estate and trust services
Your estate and trust needs | Your action plan |
|---|---|
| Planning the transfer of assets to loved ones | Scotiatrust can advise you on when and how you should transfer assets to minimize taxes. For example, should you give cash gifts to adult children while you are alive? |
| Ensuring the right people receive your assets | It’s important to prepare a detailed will that names beneficiaries and includes detailed bequests. That will ensure that your assets are divided exactly as you intend. |
| Caring for minors | You should identify and confirm the people who will act as legal guardians for your minor children, and document how your assets will be managed to help care for your children. |
| Providing for financial care of dependants after your death | Trusts can be established in your will, with detailed instructions on how they are to be managed and by whom. |
| Appointing executors | You can name a relative or friend as your executor or use Scotiatrust’s professional executor services, whether you need a sole executor or a co-executor. Scotiatrust also offers Estate Assist which is a service provided to help executors fulfil their role. |
| Planning for possible incapacitation at any stage of life | Powers of attorney for personal care and property give authority to others to make decisions on your behalf when you can’t. Scotiatrust can help you choose the right people for these roles or can act on your behalf (but only as your attorney for property). |
| Minimizing taxes at death | Permanent life insurance can be put in place to pay for final expenses, income tax at death and any estate costs. A professional executor who specializes in estate administration for physicians can ensure your estate, including your medical professional corporation, is wound down in a tax-efficient manner. |
| Winding down your corporation | Creating a plan in advance gives you the opportunity to minimize taxes and avoid the risk of double taxation. |
| Leaving a legacy | Knowing in advance that you want to support a favourite charity or other organization lets you provide for this gift within your estate plan. For example, you may be able to donate in a way that creates a tax credit on your final tax bill, resulting in more assets to share with your beneficiaries. |
| Support with financial administration tasks | Personal Office provides an invaluable service for Trustees and Attorneys seeking assistance in discharging their many duties and responsibilities. This service offers you or your personal representative an impartial, total solution—securely and efficiently helping you manage the administration of your financial affairs, or those of a loved one. |
| Appointing a trustee | Scotiatrust can act as an independent, third-party trustee or co-trustee to minimize family stress and mitigate potential conflicts. |
* MD Advisor refers to an MD Management Limited Financial Consultant or Investment Advisor (in Quebec), or an MD Private Investment Counsel Portfolio Manager.