Alter ego & joint partner trusts — how much of this can I do myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: these trusts defer the deemed disposition to the death of the settlor or surviving spouse under Canadian rules, but foreign grantor-trust and reporting regimes may treat the same arrangement as transparent and reportable.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
Should I use an alter ego trust if I am a US citizen?
That is the question to ask before the deed is drafted, not after. A trust of this kind is built for Canadian outcomes: keeping assets out of probate and deferring the disposition that would otherwise arise on death. Foreign regimes do not read the arrangement the same way. Where the settlor is a US person, the same trust may be treated as transparent for foreign purposes and reportable year after year, which turns a single estate-planning step into an ongoing compliance obligation. It can be exactly the wrong structure for the person it was recommended to.
Does an alter ego trust avoid probate on my Canadian assets?
Avoiding probate is what these trusts are designed to do, and for a settlor with no foreign connections they do it. The question we test first is not whether the mechanism works, but who every party to it is. The residence and citizenship of the settlor, the spouse, the trustees and the beneficiaries all bear on how the arrangement will be treated outside Canada. A structure that achieves a clean probate outcome here and creates a reporting obligation abroad has not saved the family anything. It has moved the cost.
Is my Canadian trust reportable in the United States?
It can be, and the trigger is usually a person rather than an asset. Foreign grantor-trust and reporting regimes look at who settled the trust and who benefits from it. If a settlor or a beneficiary is a US person, the arrangement may be treated as transparent in that system, with the income attributed and the trust itself reportable, even though the Canadian treatment is entirely different. Nothing about the trust holding only Canadian assets and having only Canadian trustees prevents this. The residence of every party is what decides it.
When is the tax deferred to in a joint partner trust?
Under the Canadian rules the deemed disposition that would otherwise arise on death is deferred to the death of the surviving spouse, rather than falling on the first death. That is the point of the structure for a couple. It is worth understanding that this is a deferral and not a forgiveness: the disposition arrives, and the estate should be planned on the basis that it will. Where one spouse has a foreign connection, the deferral may hold in Canada while the other system takes no notice of it at all.
Can I name my daughter in the United States as a beneficiary?
You can, but it changes what the trust is. Adding a beneficiary who is a US person can bring the arrangement inside foreign reporting regimes that had no interest in it before, and that obligation recurs rather than arising once. The distributions she receives may also be characterised differently there than here. None of this means the answer is no. It means the decision should be taken with the reporting consequence in front of you, and usually before the deed is settled rather than by a later amendment.
Do I test residence before or after the trust is drafted?
Before. The residence of every party is the first test, because it determines whether this structure is the right one at all, and because the alternatives are far easier to discuss while nothing has been signed. Once the trust exists and assets have been transferred into it, the options narrow and each of them carries its own cost. We do this in writing with the drafting lawyer, so the deed is prepared against an answer rather than against an assumption about where the family will be living.
How does the treaty tie-breaker work when both countries say I am resident?
As a sequence, stopping at the first test that gives an answer: where you have a permanent home available; if in both or neither, where your centre of vital interests is; then habitual abode; then nationality; and if all of those tie, the two tax authorities decide by agreement. It is evidential rather than elective — you do not choose your treaty residence, you demonstrate it, which makes the record of homes, family and time the substance of the claim. See tie-breaking dual residency.
How does cross-border tax planning work?
It starts with facts rather than structures: which countries have a claim on you, what each one taxes, and where the two overlap. From there the decisions are about order and timing — which country taxes first, where relief is claimed, and whether a filing or a certificate has to be in place before money moves rather than after. Most of the value is in the sequencing, because relief claimed late is usually relief recovered slowly. See international tax planning.
