The final Brown Bag Lunch of the 2021-2022 term was held on June 21, 2022. OBA members took the opportunity to discuss a variety of interesting and important practice questions before we all took a break for July and August.
The first topic of discussion was what to do in a situation where a person has died intestate, and their common law spouse will not sign a renunciation but also will not confirm whether they intend to bring a dependant’s support claim against the estate. Attendees shared their thoughts, noting that if the spouse does bring a claim for dependant’s support, they would clearly be in a position of conflict and unable to act. Some BBLers contemplated whether s. 29 of the Estates Act should be changed so as to not include common law spouses on the same footing as other next of kin in the event of an intestacy, in light of the fact that common law spouses do not inherit on an intestacy.
BBLers then shared their recent experiences of turnaround time to obtain a clearance certificate from the CRA. In general, based on attendees’ anecdotal evidence, it appears that the timing ranges from about two to six months.
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