Aging population changing the focus of wills and estates law

For professionals and the public alike, wills and estates law will always have a close association with death. But changing demographics are forcing lawyers to broaden their focus beyond that critical life event.  

After more than two decades practising in the area, Kim Whaley – one of seven program directors for the 2025 edition of the Osgoode Intensive Program in Wills and Estates – says she has witnessed a noticeable shift in the subject matter of her files.

“With our aging population, disputes are driven much more by what happened during a person’s life, as opposed to a traditional will challenge after death,” says Whaley, the founder of Toronto law firm Whaley Estate Litigation Partners. “That includes things like allegations of misuse of a power of attorney respecting inter vivos transfers by an attorney, capacity proceedings, contested guardianship and the interplay of undue influence and vulnerability.”

And with dementia cases expected to triple worldwide in the next 25 years, that trend shows no sense of reversing any time soon.

“People are living longer, which makes them more vulnerable to becoming incapable at some point in time,” adds Suzana Popovic-Montag, managing partner at wills and estates boutique Hull & Hull LLP.

Popovic-Montag and the firm’s Founding Partner Ian Hull will explore some of the legal issues associated with incapacity – both contentious and non-contentious – as co-chairs of the Powers of Attorney and Guardianship program, one of six individual modules that comprise the Osgoode Intensive Program in Wills and Estates.

The pair have a long history with Osgoode and also serve as co-Program directors of the Osgoode Certificate in Estate Litigation.

Hull actually got his start in the legal profession as a commercial litigator before he teamed up with his father, wills and estates legend Rodney Hull.

“I got an opportunity to work with my dad and I took it,” Hull says. “I’ve never looked back.”

After founding Hull & Hull, the father-son team found one of their first recruits in Popovic-Montag, who was looking to make her own pivot to wills and estates law from commercial litigation.

“It was a really steep learning curve, because the estates court has its own way of doing things,” she says.

According to Popovic-Montag, the comprehensive nature of the Osgoode Intensive Program makes it an ideal starting point for younger lawyers making their own switch to the practice area, as well as social workers, accountants and other non-legal professionals whose work intersects with wills and estates law.

“I like to think of the course as an introduction to some of the topics that we talk about, but it’s not just fluff. There is plenty of substance to it,” she says. “We have an incredibly knowledgeable set of experts lined up as speakers.”

In addition to the session on Powers of Attorney, other modules in the intensive program will focus on Passing of Accounts, Estate Planning and Administration, Taxation, Will Drafting and Consent and Capacity Issues – each chaired by their own expert program director.  

Attendees can mix and match modules to fill specific knowledge and skills gaps or complete all courses by the May 26, 2025 deadline to earn a certificate of completion for the entire Intensive Program.

Whaley, who chairs the Passing of Accounts module, earned her law degree in the U.K. and practised there for several years before returning home to Canada in 1998. Following her call to the bar in Ontario, she built a solid foundation in corporate law before finally finding her calling in wills and estates law – first under Rodney Hull at Hull & Hull and then as principal of her own firm.

“I didn’t really like corporate law, and I was unable to convert myself,” Whaley says. “What I’ve always liked about this practice area is there is such a big human component to it. It’s normal, every-day people with normal, every-day problems.”

Whaley has extensive experience chairing and speaking at OsgoodePD programs, including the Osgoode Certificate in Elder Law and past editions of the Intensive Program in Wills and Estates.

She says anyone advising or acting as estate trustees, appointees under powers of attorney or other fiduciaries will benefit from attendance at her module, which covers topics such as compensation, common objections and contested versus uncontested passings – all informed by Osgoode’s trademark emphasis on interactive and problem-based learning.

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