Navigating New Terrain: Key Tax and Other Changes Affecting Estates Practice 2025

Product Type: Course

This course has no current sessions.

DescriptionMore DetailAgenda

Keep up to date with important changes

Thursday, November 27, 2025
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
attend via webinar

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Who should attend: Lawyers who practice in the area of estate planning and estate administration

Learning level: Intermediate/Advanced

This course is designed to help estate and trust lawyers chart a course through our rapidly evolving legal landscape.

With a series of significant tax and legislative changes in recent years and rapidly evolving AI capabilities, the terrain has shifted dramatically. We will review the various changes and equip you with the knowledge necessary to provide informed, strategic advice to your clients. Our speakers will address the impact of changes in the following areas on our clients and the plans we design for them:

income tax updates, including trust reporting rules
flipped property taxes
the growing use of post-mortem digital avatars
modifications to trusts
vacancy taxes

After taking this program, you will:

be aware of income tax updates
gain knowledge of property flipping taxes
understand issues regarding digital likeness rights
be aware of variations to trusts
have an update on vacancy taxes

Law Society of BC CPD Hours: 6 hours (this course will contain a minimum of 1 hour pertaining to professional responsibility and ethics, client care and relations, and/or practice management)

Course Chair
Alison Oxtoby — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

Pricing	EARLY BIRD Register by Oct. 30/25	Regular Price After Oct. 30/25
Webinar	$559	$639
Webinar Articled Student	$319	$319

Are you a member of the Indigenous legal community (lawyer/Articled Student/legal support staff/paralegal) or a non-lawyer Indigenous community member?
CLEBC is committed to reducing barriers to legal education. We value your contributions and encourage your participation in all of our programs. To increase accessibility, we offer a 50% discount* to all self-identifying Indigenous lawyers/Articled Students/legal support staff/paralegals and a limited number of free online registrations to non-lawyer Indigenous community members. (*discount applies to Regular prices, not Early Bird prices). Please contact Customer Service to find out more.

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Registration includes an electronic copy of the reference materials.

CLEBC Program Lawyer*
Nadia Myerthall
nmyerthall@cle.bc.ca
*non-practising

Course Chair
Alison Oxtoby — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

About the Course Chair
Alison Oxtoby is a Partner at Fasken, where she works in the areas of trusts, wills & estates and tax-planned corporate reorganizations. She has been working in this area for over 25 years, and has had the opportunity to experience the practice from a variety of perspectives—at a large national firm in Vancouver, at a boutique firm in a smaller center, and in-house at a bank—enjoying the benefits and suffering the challenges of each, but always with a passion for the law.

Alison is a frequent presenter for a number or organizations, including CLEBC. She is also an active member of the legal community, having served as Chair of the STEP Okanagan Chapter and an Executive Committee Member for the STEP Vancouver Branch, Chair of the CBA's Okanagan Wills & Trusts Section, President of the Kelowna Estate Planning Society, and in various roles with the CBA BC Branch.

Faculty
Cara Chu — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver
Alexander Demner — Thorsteinssons LLP, Vancouver
Dr. Sara M. Johnson, Esq, PhD, TEP, CFP, VP — HNW Planning Services, RBC Family Office Services, Kelowna (virtual presentation)
Scott A. Murtha — Murtha & Company, Vancouver
Hiva Parandian — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver
Richard Weiland — Clark Wilson LLP, Vancouver

Click here for full faculty bios

Course Introduction and Land Ackowledgement (9:00 – 9:10)

Nadia Myerthall — Program Lawyer, CLEBC, Vancouver
Alison Oxtoby — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

Income Tax Updates (9:10 – 10:25)

enhanced trust (and bare trust) reporting obligations
post-mortem tax planning update
mandatory disclosure rules
intergenerational and sibling business transfers
alternative minimum tax
expanded CRA audit powers

Alexander Demner — Thorsteinssons LLP, Vancouver

Property Flipping Taxes (10:25 – 11:15)

federal flipped property rules
BC home flipping tax
traps and problems encountered in trust and estate planning

Richard Weiland — Clark Wilson LLP, Vancouver

BREAK (11:15 – 11:30)

Are You Ready?: Integrating Digital Likeness Rights Into Estate Plans (11:30 – 12:40) (virtual presentation)

current laws on post-death likeness rights in Canada
opening conversations with clients on identity rights
options to manage posthumous digital rights in estate plans
effects of new technologies on digital legacies
real life examples of post-death avatars
addressing ethical challenges in digital estates

Dr. Sara M. Johnson, Esq, PhD, TEP, CFP, VP — HNW Planning Services, RBC Family Office Services, Kelowna

LUNCH (12:40 – 1:20)

Variations to Trusts: When is it Possible? Tax and Other Traps (1:20 – 2:30)

trustee powers to amend trusts—limitations and pitfalls
statutory powers for trust variation
court jurisdiction to rectify or vary trusts
potential tax issues arising with resettlement, variation, and dispositions of beneficial interest
practical considerations and drafting pointers for practitioners

Scott A. Murtha — Murtha & Company, Vancouver

BREAK (2:30 – 2:45)

Vacancy Taxes: Speculation and Vacancy Tax, Empty Homes Tax, and Underused Housing Tax (2:45 – 3:55)

overview and updates
key distinctions and nuances of the three legislations
planning considerations

Cara Chu — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver
Hiva Parandian — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

Closing Remarks (3:55 – 4:00)

Alison Oxtoby — Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver

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Navigating New Terrain: Key Tax and Other Changes Affecting Estates Practice 2025

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