How we research and review our guides

The guides on this site deal with things that matter: a parent's savings, their home, their care, and your legal duties. These are the standards we hold every guide to.

We start from official sources

Every guide is built on primary sources: Canadian and provincial legislation, government websites and forms, and guidance from bodies like the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada, and Ontario's Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. We list the sources at the end of each guide and link to them, so you can check the original for yourself.

Where official sources don't cover the practical side of a task, such as what a bank will usually ask for, we say so, and we describe it in general terms.

We say which province a guide covers

Rules on powers of attorney, guardianship, probate, and long-term care differ from province to province. Every guide is labelled with the province it describes. We start with Ontario. Guides about federal programs, like CPP, OAS, and income tax, are labelled Canada-wide.

We date every guide and recheck it

Each guide shows the date it was last reviewed. We recheck every guide on a schedule, at least once a month, and sooner when a rule or amount changes. When we update a guide, we change the review date.

We fix mistakes quickly

If you spot something that's wrong or out of date, please tell us. We check every report against the official source and correct the guide as soon as we can.

We explain, we don't advise

Our guides explain how things generally work. They are not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice, and we don't answer questions about individual situations. When a decision calls for a professional, we say so, and explain what kind of professional can help.

We stay independent

No one pays us to appear in a guide or to say something in one. If we ever earn money from a link or recommendation, we'll say so clearly on the page where it appears.