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Madeleine Coats,
TEP

Associate

Madeleine Coats

Language(s) spoken: English

Bar Admission(s): Nova Scotia, 2020

Legal Assistant(s): Katie Mullane

Madeleine practices in the areas of estates and trusts, tax, real property, and corporate commercial law. She strives to make life easier for clients by providing a practical, solution-focused and thoughtful approach.

Madeleine has experience working with individuals, businesses and organizations of various sizes and has supported matters for a range of private and public sector clients, including estate planning, corporate reorganizations, and transactional work for members of our Firm’s largest clients.

Examples of Madeleine’s work include:

  • Assisting with strategizing and creating tax-advantageous estate plans including drafting wills, trusts, and ancillary documents to implement estate plans.
  • Drafting and assisting with administering trusts including joint partner and alter-ego trusts, asset protection trusts, family trusts, and testamentary trusts.
  • Drafting wills and other estate planning documents, including cohabitation agreements and marriage contracts, for individuals and families of varying net worth including complex estate planning strategies and detailed trusts for children, grandchildren and other heirs.
  • Incorporations and assisting with ongoing corporate governance matters for owner-managed businesses.
  • Assisting with corporate and commercial matters including owner-managed business purchases or sales and other matters of business succession planning.
  • Drafting shareholders’ agreements and other commercial agreements for owner-managed or family-owned businesses, particularly as they pertain to inter-generational transfers and succession planning.
  • Advising on the Probate Act, the Intestate Succession Act, and other processes where owners of property are deceased.
  • Assisting with the administration of estates of varying complexity and value, from $200K to $800M.
  • Drafting charitable status applications for private and public foundations and assisting in their ongoing administration.
  • Real property transactions ranging from single property residential acquisitions or dispositions to more complex private and commercial transactions.

Education & Career

Education

University of New Brunswick, JD, 2019
Lund University Faculty of Law (Juridicum), Sweden, 2018
Mount Allison University, BA (Honours), 2016

Activities

Director – Boys and Girls Club of Greater Halifax

Program Chair – STEP Atlantic Executive

Chair – Wills, Estates and Trust Section, Canadian Bar Association (Nova Scotia branch)

Member – STEP Atlantic

Member – STEP Canada

Member – Canadian Bar Association

Nova Scotia Women’s Hockey League

Volleyball Nova Scotia Beach League

Accolades

TEP designation from STEP

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Publications

Equality, Equity, and Exclusion: The Effect of the Jackson Estate Decision on Common Law Partners, ETPJ 39:4, August 2020

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