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This article appears in the March 2021 issue of Advisor’s Edge
Testators leaving an asset to someone may not want others even family members to know about the gift. One way to keep gifts confidential is through the use of secret trusts.
With a secret trust, an individual makes a gift to a person typically in a will but privately agrees with that person that they are to hold the gift in trust for a third person. For example, Jim names Bob as the beneficiary of a gift in a will. Separately, Bob agrees to a request from Jim, made before Jim’s death, that Bob will hold that gift in trust for Kate after Jim dies.
Rudy Mezzetta
Many high-net-worth (hnw) clients have stepped up their charitable giving this year, directing more money toward social issues such as health care, housing and food security to meet increased need during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, the Canadian charitable sector overall has been hit hard by the pandemic, with many organizations losing stable revenue from event-driven fundraising and other sources.
That means there’s greater need for wealthy donors and their financial advisors to carefully examine the charities to which they’re considering donating significant amounts.
“In the worst-case scenario, you’re making a donation, but the donation is being used to keep the lights on,” says Corina Weigl, partner with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in Toronto and co-leader of the firm’s private client service group. She anticipates that some charities won’t be able to survive the current economic conditions, “so there is some due diligence that donors s