George Mathew Associates

Vaughan · Greater Toronto Area · Ontario

Most people are wrong about what happens to their money.

Not because they were careless. Because a will does not control the biggest assets most families own, the tax bill lands before anything can be sold to pay it, and nobody explains either one until it is someone else's problem to solve.

Serving families and business owners across Vaughan, the Greater Toronto Area, and Ontario.

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Illustrative Ontario estate cost

A $900,000 estate in Ontario

$12,750 Estate Administration Tax, if all of it is probated
Could pass outside probate Still probated

Same family, same assets, different ownership and beneficiary designations. The difference is not a loophole — it is a set of decisions made in advance.

Three things worth knowing

The parts that catch people out.

Your will does not control everything

A named beneficiary on an RRSP, a TFSA, or a life insurance policy overrides your will completely. So does joint ownership with right of survivorship. For most households that covers the majority of what they own.

The tax bill arrives before the money does

Canada has no estate tax. What it has is a deemed disposition — you are treated as having sold everything the day you die — plus registered plans taken into income all at once. That return is due long before a house or a business can be sold properly.

Common-law partners are not automatic heirs under Ontario intestacy law

Under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act, if there is no will, a common-law partner is not a spouse for the purposes of intestacy. Length of the relationship makes no difference.

How this works

What we do, and what we don't.

We do

Map how your assets would actually transfer. Quantify what probate and tax would take. Quote life insurance across the insurers we represent, and place the coverage. Sit with your lawyer and accountant so the pieces line up.

We don't

Draft wills, powers of attorney, or trusts — that is a lawyer's work and we will tell you so. File returns. Manage investment portfolios. Or use a professional title we are not entitled to use under Ontario law.

Check the licence before you trust anyone with this

Every life insurance agent in Ontario is licensed by FSRA, and the register is public. Look up licence #23219192 on FSRA Licensing Link. Do this for us and for anyone else you speak to.

Start with a conversation.

Thirty minutes, no charge, no product pitch. Bring whatever you have — a will, a policy, a shoebox of paper, or nothing at all. You will leave knowing what is missing and what it takes to fix.

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