Douglas Gray and John Budd have published the third edition of their book The Canadian Guide to Will and Estate Planning . They do a good job of explaining in simple language the bewildering array of ways to protect your estate from taxes when you die. The range of topics covered includes building your estate, wills, trusts, probate, taxes, U.S. taxes, cottages, family businesses, charity, insurance, advisors, retirement care, and funerals. It’s almost enough to make me renounce all my worldly possessions – almost. I won’t try to summarize this book and further – even at 400 pages, most topics are covered quickly. The main value of this book to me was to become aware of possible estate planning strategies. Actually acting on this information likely requires further investigation or professional help. For the rest of this review, I’ll point out some parts of the book I found interesting, surprising, or I disagreed with. CDIC Coverage “You are protected up to a maximum of $...

I’m expecting to be named as executor of a couple of estates and will likely help out in others. So, I was interested to read The 50 Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes ... and How to Avoid Them by Jean Blacklock and Sarah Kruger. In addition to mistakes in planning an estate, the authors cover mistakes in serving as an executor and in being a beneficiary. Although the book is framed as a list of common mistakes, it serves as a how-to guide and provides some entertainment value with numerous anecdotes. My main criticism of this book is that it comes on a little strong in promoting the services of trust companies and various other experts that may be needed in preparing a will or settling an estate. I don’t doubt that these experts are sorely needed in many cases, particularly for larger estates, but this theme is overdone in the book. The strength of this book is the experience it draws from. Reading through the various mistakes people make I realized that I could make many of t...