You Can't Take It with You: The Common Sense Guide to Estate Planning for Canadians. 2nd ed.

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

You Can’t Take It with You is a relatively rare bird amid the flock of
recent financial-planning books, because it deals with a complicated
area that most of us tend to avoid. This well-organized and
comprehensive new edition reflects the tax changes for gift planning and
the Canada Pension Plan, adds new questions and answers, and includes a
lengthy list of executor duties. Even the casual reader will be alerted
to the fact that making a will is the beginning, not the end, of estate
planning, and that a great deal more is involved than one would expect.

In 20 detailed chapters, the author covers the value of an estate plan,
common death benefits, dying intestate (a hornets’ nest!), form and
content of wills, what happens on death, final tax returns, life
insurance, trusts, gift planning, health care and living wills, organ
donor cards, planning a funeral, and much more. The summaries she’s
included at the end of each chapter are especially helpful.

Foster, a financial adviser and a popular speaker on financial matters,
writes clearly and well. You Can’t Take It with You is an important
reference work for seniors and their adult children. It provides a
foundation for estate planning for Canadians who do not have technical
expertise.