Estate Planning | 3 Most Common Planning Documents

In this video, we cover the execution or signing requirements for the 3 most common legal documents that you need to be aware of in order to effectively create your estate plan.

What are the 3 most common legal documents?

1) A Will

2) Power of Attorney

3) Representation Agreement

Canadian small businesses will receive some rent relief during COVID-19

Prime Minister Trudeau announced on Thursday April 16, 2020 a new program to assist small businesses that are stuck in commercial lease agreements that they cannot make payments on.

The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program (“CECRA”) will assist small businesses with rent for April, May and June.

Details on the CECRA program

The program will, according to a PM’s office press release “seek to provide loans, including forgivable loans, to commercial property owners who in turn will lower or forgo the rent of small businesses for April (retroactive), May, and June.”

Thinking of Incorporating your Small Business?

This video describes the main benefits of incorporation for the small business owner:

1) Liability protection

2) Saves you money on taxes

3) Eligibility for the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption upon sale of your shares

4) Flexibility in how you structure, fund and operate your small business

COVID-19 and your Commercial Lease

These unprecedented times have given rise to much uncertainty. As we continue to adapt, commercial tenants and landlords have many questions since all non-essential businesses have been asked to close down. The main concern is regarding the impact of COVID-19 on commercial leases. A good place to start for this discussion is to explore the concepts of force majeure clauses and the doctrine of frustration of contracts.

What is a force majeure clause?

A force majeure clause is a provision that is included in most commercial contracts or lease agreements. It may allow one or both parties to defer or terminate performance of their obligations as a result of a specified event that is outside of their control. These events could include:

Acts of God (E.g. natural disasters like earthquakes and tornados)

Public health emergencies (E.g. epidemics and pandemics)

Government action (E.g. lockdowns/forced closures and changes in the law)

How to make sense of your startup employee stock option package

For early-stage startups, offering employee stock options can be a key part of attracting and keeping key talent. A stock option is an agreement that gives an employee the right to buy shares in the company at a discounted rate.For the employee on the receiving end, making sense of a complex, jargon-heavy stock option offer can be daunting. Given that such shares can carry significant risk - with startups often having poor survival ratings - it is very important to properly evaluate your stock option offer.Here is a guide to making sense of your stock option offer.

First, do a basic assessment of the company

The first step is to conduct a basic assessment of the company. This is key to understanding the risk involved with any stock option plan.At what stage of investment is the company at? Is the company a pre-seed investment? If yes, you need to understand that this is the highest-risk stage of a company lifecycle. 90% of new companies never get to VC funding and founders can be delusional about their prospects for investment. So take any claims that a company has a large, interested investor with a grain of salt.