Breaking the Silence: Dealing with Mental Health Issues in Estate Planning

Estate planners, in their role in advising such an intimate aspect of their clients’ lives, deal with a vast array of diverse individuals. Many of those clients may be affected by a family member with a mental illness or in fact be affect by a mental illness themselves.

Statistics show that more people are touched by mental illness than previously thought, as many as one in five Canadians. The taboos of the past dictating silence on the issue should be shoved aside so that there can be an honest and open discussion between all involved. Mental illnesses and their affects on a child’s or grandchild’s ability to provide for themselves should be considered in a thorough estate plan. Protection can be accomplished through a trust with instructions to the trustee to pay income and capital for their child’s benefit, but also the ability to terminate the trust should the protection of a trust not be necessary when their child reaches a more mature age. 

As mental illnesses a highlighted more in the public eye and not seen as the stigma that they once were, more people will understand their loved ones as well as their needs.

See Margaret O’Sullivan, Breaking the Silence: Dealing with Mental Health Issues in Estate Planning, O’Sullivan Law, August 30, 2019.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.