Planning for your Will

Rocco Junior: a dog at the centre of a legal battle
Cute dog with a yellow ball

Everyone loves dogs; they bring us so much joy. Many of us infantilize them and treat them as if they were our children. Wealthy people have even dispersed entire fortunes to them: read about the Leona Helmsley affair to find out about a dog who was worth millions. We lavish praise and gifts upon them. There are custody battles fought over dogs, just as there are court battles fought over children. 

Aliesha Verma, a resident of Ontario, Canada, is currently embroiled in a legal battle over her late boyfriend’s dog, Rocco Junior. Rocco was gifted to Verma by Leonard Carvalho,  her late boyfriend, but now Carvalho’s sister is fighting for “custody” of the dog. Despite the fact that the dog has lived with Verma since he was just a puppy, Carvalho’s sister is disputing Verma’s legal ownership of the animal. In a legal motion filed against Verma, Carvalho’s sister claims that Verma never had legal ownership of the dog. 

There is a hearing to determine the fate of the dog in August. The case may set legal precedent for animal ownership. Leonard Carvalho’s Last Will doesn’t specifically state any clauses as to who owns the beloved pet. It will be interesting to see how this case plays out throughout the court system. This whole debacle is another reason to have your Will complete. In fact, FormalWill.ca offers a National Pet Will, which you can read about here.

As one legal expert put it: “Unless your pets are specifically addressed within your estate planning, “then, unfortunately, they will be treated just like any other personal property, like a car or jewelry.” 

You can read more about this ongoing legal battle, here.

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The Baby Boomer Wealth Transfer to their Children

The Baby Boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964, has long been regarded as one of the largest and most influential generations in history. As they are now reaching retirement, the process of Baby Boomers passing down their wealth to Millennials/GenZ/GenX, has begun. Trillions of dollars will change hands over the coming years. The beneficiaries of this wealth transfer, primarily Generation X and Millennials, will have the opportunity to inherit assets such as real estate, financial investments, and family businesses. The 2008 recession decimated the younger generations, their earning potential, and their ability to reach certain milestones. The transfer of wealth may help correct that course, somewhat. The magnitude of this transfer also raises questions about how the younger generations will manage and utilize their inherited wealth, potentially shaping their financial futures and societal outcomes in the years to come. If you reside in the United States, you may find some of these options helpful when it comes to transferring your property.

When it comes to housing, however, there may be alternatives to look at, rather than simply passing it through a Will:

  1. Passing down that money in the form of a Trust ( a revocable living trust or an irrevocable trust)
  2. Gifting the house (this can include gifting property while you’re still alive)
  3. A life estate (Life estates can create a kind of joint partnership)

  4. A 1031 Exchange for Investment Properties (deferring capital gains)


You can read more about the options available, here.

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The usual reasons for not having a Last Will..

An Angus-Reid poll shows the reasons as to why Canadians don’t have Wills: a) few assets to worry about, b) the dislike over thinking about death, and c) the time-consuming nature of writing a Will and the confusion surrounding writing a Will (this can be solved through a DIY service, such as FormalWill.ca). 

These are the usual reasons as to why people put off creating a Will, and these reasons have been consistent over a number of years that Angus-Reid has been running this survey across Canada. 50 percent of Canadians don’t have a Will; and four in five Canadians who don’t have a Last Will are under the age of 35. 

The study found the following interesting statistics on why Canadians don’t have Wills: 

  • Individuals in households with incomes below 100k are twice as likely to claim that they have no assets to leave behind, and therefore, less likely to create a Will 
  • One-in-eight Canadians who have Wills (13%) are out of date
  • Men and women are (almost) as equally likely to claim that they don’t have Wills
  • Canadians  in Manitoba (32%) and Saskatchewan (34%) are the least likely to have updated Wills
  • Two-thirds (63%) of Canadians surveyed in the lowest income households say they do not have a Will
  • 24% of Canadians surveyed claimed that they didn’t have a Will because they were too young to have one
  • The survey was conducted online from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2023
  • The survey sample was conducted among a randomized sample of 1,610 Canadian adults

The trickiest part of actually sitting down and doing a Will has to do with a lack of assets; with inflation rising the way it is right now, it’s no wonder that many people have put off creating a Will. But as we’ve seen time and time again, people tend to put off these important documents right BEFORE a trip, or before a surgery. It’s always good to re-evaluate your assets and what you want to have done. You can have your Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will done through FormalWill.ca. You can read more about the survey, here.

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The secret to KFC was written down on the back of a Will

It’s finger lickin’ good! That’s the theme of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “eleven herbs and spices” secret. Everyone knows Kentucky Fried Chicken; it’s beloved the world over. In Japan, they actually eat KFC for Christmas. The secret recipe was supposedly leaked in 2016, and if the recipe is 100% accurate, it is a bit more bland than one would think. The KFC recipe is filled with ingredients and spices one would find in their cupboard. It is actually more simplistic than you might think (with the one exception being white pepper). Have you ever heard of white pepper? White pepper does not sound like an ingredient everyone would have in their cupboard.

Harland David Sanders is the “colonel” who invented the KFC mega franchise in 1952. The “colonel” kept his recipe a secret, until it was supposedly leaked by members of his own family in 2016. His nephew, Joe Ledington, leaked the recipe in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. The recipe wasn’t under lock and key, in some security vault; it was in a family scrapbook. Claudia Ledington (Joe’s aunt), wrote the simple recipe in simple blue ink on the back of her Last Will and Testament. The recipe is titled “11 Spices — Mix With 2 Cups White Fl.” Joe explained to the reporter: “That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive.” He then followed it up with “It could be; I don’t know for sure.” In other words, he’s not 100% certain of the accuracy of the Last Will.

It could be the real recipe, but if it is, why would Joe reveal his uncle’s secret recipe? Read more about the leak here:  It’s Finger lickin’ good!

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