Testamentary Trusts

As we all know, if something seems too good to be true, it generally is. Not so with the testamentary trust. The testamentary trust is infinitely flexible, and operates to protect assets, split income, and preserve favourable taxation for estate assets. This paper will discuss some of the primary opportunities to make use of this flexible estate planning tool as well as some issues that should be considered in the context of testamentary trusts. This article was for a presentation to the Pacific Business and Law Institute, "Critical Issues in Estate Planning Today", at Calgary, Alberta.