ARTICLE · 08 MAY 2018

Children, Equality And Inheritance: Your Final Legacy

O'Sullivan Estate Lawyers LLP

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On May 4, 2018, we celebrate our firm's 20th anniversary. I thought it would be fitting as well as helpful to reflect on one of the most challenging questions in family succession: whether children should be treated equally.

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Margaret O'Sullivan

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On May 4, 2018, we celebrate our firm's 20^th anniversary. I thought it would be fitting as well as helpful to reflect on one of the most challenging questions in family succession: whether children should be treated equally. Being a trust and estate lawyer now for over thirty-five years has given me perspective, as well as some practical insight into this issue.

From a legal viewpoint, Ontario law and most common law jurisdictions provide for testamentary freedom and you are free to treat your children unequally. Financially dependent children can however have a claim for support in certain limited cases.

Let me start out with the observation that in my experience, almost all parents share the view that their children should be treated equally under their wills. Many are punctilious to the nth degree about this rule and right down to the last penny, particularly where some of their children may already have received financial assistance during their lifetimes and

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