The End Game

Charitable giving can be about much more than writing a cheque. For families with significant wealth, a major gift can become part of an estate plan and ultimately an intergenerational legacy.

Julie Quenneville joins Sara Hillier to explore how major philanthropy can help families turn wealth into long-term impact. Quenneville is the CEO of Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) Foundation, which supports Toronto General Hospital, ranked No. 2 in the world by Newsweek in 2026. They discuss how families can work with institutional partners to structure giving over time, and why involving children early can make philanthropy a meaningful part of family life at any level of wealth.

Quenneville also explains how philanthropy can be a catalytic investment, providing the seed capital behind ambitious projects, helping recruit world-class researchers and supporting frontier medical science before it is established enough to attract conventional funding.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

Most Canadians expect executorship to be difficult. Most would still sign up for the job.

Pollster Will Daley joins Davide Pisanu to unpack ClearEstate's 2026 national survey of more than 3,000 adults on estate administration and executorship. They discuss why trust continues to shape family decisions about estates, how wishful thinking leads to months of unexpected work and what opportunities are revealed in the data that could help Canadians be better prepared.

Daley, Senior Vice President, Research and Analytics at Canada Pulse Insights, also explains what surprised him most about the study and why simply getting the ball rolling may be one of the biggest predictors of estate planning success.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

As AI takes on more of the administrative work behind financial advice, what becomes most valuable about the advisor?

Financial planner and Fintech Impact podcaster Jason Pereira, also a partner at Toronto's Woodgate Financial, joins Sara to discuss the rise of the AI-augmented advisor, why technology is a tool rather than a strategy, and where human judgment and relationships remain essential. They also explore how better technology can support estate planning, while leaving the complexities of family and legacy firmly in human hands.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

Assets and liabilities may form part of a legacy but they are rarely the whole story.

Sara Hillier is joined by Elena Iacono, founder of LegacyNex, to discuss what Elena describes as human inheritance: the stories, values, judgment and life lessons that traditional estate documents were never designed to preserve.

Elena explains how she turns guided conversations into published books that families can cherish for generations. The conversation also looks at how documenting the meaning behind wealth can strengthen advisor-client relationships, because what matters most is different for every family.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

When a relationship with a wealth advisor is working, over time, the impact can extend far beyond one portfolio or generation. If optimized, these professional relationships can "change your family tree".

Brent Allen, a veteran wealth manager, head of sales at IG Wealth and member of ClearEstate's board of directors, joins Davide for a straightforward discussion on the modern advisor relationship across the full arc of a family's financial life. They explore why end-of-life conversations should be a natural extension of financial advice, how advisors can help clients prepare for family meetings and why proper succession plans require coordination across multiple professionals.

Overseeing a team of 3,300+ financial advisors across Canada, Brent also speaks to how new technologies are helping advisors prepare more thoroughly for meetings with clients, stress test scenarios and ultimately create better outcomes; responsible AI integration paired with expert judgment should tell clients not just what they want to hear but what they need to know.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

End-of-life planning is about assets but can also include the rituals, customs and cultural expectations families hope will live on.

Sara Hillier is joined by Pandit Roopnauth Sharma, founder and spiritual leader of Mississauga's Ram Mandir and president of the Hindu Federation of Canada, for a conversation breaking down Hindu end-of-life traditions. They discuss death, reincarnation, karma, cremation, prayer, mourning periods and the role of the mandir as a source of care.

The conversation also looks at how religious and cultural wishes can be reflected in an estate plan, and how families can make sure important traditions remain part of a loved one's legacy. For advisors and families, the lesson is clear: traditions that are assumed are often the ones most at risk of being forgotten.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

At a certain level of wealth, legacy planning becomes a question of enoughness: what a family wants, what it needs and what it can share.

Philanthropist, investor and activist Claire Trottier joins Davide to discuss her personal reconciling of intergenerational wealth, social responsibility and family legacy. Drawing on her work with Patriotic Millionaires Canada, the Trottier Family Foundation and various forms of impact investing, Claire explains why giving is not only about charity but about the systems and moral obligations that ought to come with major financial resources.

The conversation looks at how advisors and their HNW clients can engage with deeper questions not only of how wealth is preserved but how much is enough, and what can be done with the rest.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

Great legacies are rarely built alone.

Journalist Eric Andrew-Gee joins Davide to discuss Dr. Wilder Penfield, the celebrated neurosurgeon whose work helped map the human brain, and William Cone, the brilliant but largely forgotten collaborator beside him at the Montréal Neurological Institute. Drawing on Eric's new book The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain, the conversation looks at partnership, betrayal and the forces that shape public memory.

Taking Penfield's familiar Canadian TV Heritage Minute as a starting point, Eric explains how Penfield became one of Canada's best-known scientific figures, why Cone's role faded from view, and what their story reveals about how legacies are made: who gets remembered, who gets burnt, and how archives, media and institutions shape the historical record.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

Grief is universal but mourning is shaped by culture, ritual and community. In the first of many episodes on diverse end-of-life traditions, Sara explores Jewish mourning practices.

She is joined by writer and death educator Simcha Paull Raphael, author of the bestseller Jewish Views of the Afterlife, to discuss how non-Jewish professionals, colleagues and friends can support people in the Jewish community who are grieving, from funeral timing and Shiva etiquette to the time-tested communal structures that help carry mourners through loss.

The conversation also looks at the deeper beliefs behind these practices, including Jewish views on the soul, the afterlife and ethical wills, which can be useful for estate planners of all backgrounds. These 'Traditions' episodes are meant to be a starting point for anyone hoping to show up with more understanding, sensitivity and care.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.

Heirlooms like fine art can create real value, and real complications for families when it's time to settle an estate.

A former appraiser joins Davide and Sara to explain how art, jewelry and collectibles are handled in estate administration, from provenance to probate. Drawing on over a decade of experience at one of Canada's oldest auction houses, ClearEstate's head of partner relations, Ellie Muir, shares what experts actually look for, and why sentimental value and market value are very different concepts.

Ellie also shares her view on the mythology of the Antiques Roadshow phenomenon and how it may have created some unrealistic expectations. Still, hidden treasures do exist but require validation; Ellie and Sara go through why anyone with art, jewelry or rare collectibles should consider creating an inventory, storing documentation and even taking out some insurance.

For more guidance, insight and resources on estate planning and administration, visit www.clearestate.com.