Excluded property in BC can be tricky. Generally, excluded property is property owned by one spouse prior to the relationship. Most times, this involves a house that one person bought before they married, or began living together. However, the term “excluded property” also applies to valuable art, inheritance, or other…
Ex lover of murder victim claims $50 million estate. Xuan Yang claims her baby daughter is the biological child of Gang Yuan whose body was dismembered. B.C. Supreme Court has awarded a Beijing woman the right to have a paternity test from her ex-lover’s remains. The woman, Xuan Yang, contends…
The Wills Variation Act means your Will may not, in fact, be the last word. Vancouver siblings found their share of their inheritance reduced after their late father’s second wife challenged will. A recent Wills Variation case has opened the door wider for challenging Wills. The Wills Variation Act allows family…
Family Mediation is an assisted negotiation. It is an alternative to trying to solve a conflict on your own. It is also an alternative to going to court. Mediation is a process for problem solving. Settlement between two people in conflict is the ultimate goal. Family “Mediation is when two…
What happens when you leave your Estate to be preserved for “historical purposes” and have no heirs? The answer is a mess. Now the issue of the Binning Estate has ended up in the BC Court of Appeal. Jessie Binning, widow to famed Canadian artist Bertram Binning, no doubt had…