Stanley T. Rule

Stan is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in History (Honours) and the University of Toronto Law School. He was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1989. He has experience negotiating settlements, including negotiated settlements at mediation, and he has conducted trials in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and appeals in the British Columbia Court of Appeal. He has acted for plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of will, trust and estate disputes, including Wills Variation claims, unjust enrichment claims, incapacity and undue influence claims, trust claims, interpretation of Wills, disputes over joint accounts, and contested executor’s accounts. Stan is recognized in Lexpert as a leading practitioner in estate planning and estate litigation.

Stan has held leadership positions and has acted in professional organizations, particularly in his field of wills, trusts, and estates. He is the past chair of the National Wills, Estates and Trusts Section of the Canadian Bar Association. He is also a past chair and current member of the Okanagan Wills and Trusts subsection of the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch, and a past President and current member of the Kelowna Estate Planning Society. He is a former director of the British Columbia Law Institute. He is also a member of the International Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners, Vancouver Branch.

He has been a speaker at the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia; the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners;  the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia; the Continuing Legal Education Society of Alberta; Victoria Wills and Trusts, the Okanagan Wills and Trusts and the Okanagan Family Law subsections of the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch;  the Victoria Inns of Court; UBC Okanagan; the Vancouver Estate Planning Society; the Vernon Estate Planning Society; and on several occasions at the Kelowna Estate Planning Society.

Stan is a frequent lecturer and writer on Wills, Estates and related disputes. He has presented the following papers at courses for lawyers:

• “Wills Variation Act Considerations” Basics in Wills and Estate Planning for Lawyers in 2006, CLEBC;
• “Unjust Enrichment and Constructive Trusts” Estate Litigation, 2007 Update, CLEBC;
• “Quebec Notarial Wills” “Valuation of Assets in a Rising or Falling Market” and “Wills Written Wholly or Partly in Another Language” Out of the Ordinary Problems in Ordinary Estates in 2008, CLEBC;
• “Wills Variation Act” Estate Litigation Basics for Lawyers in 2008, CLEBC;
• “Secret Trusts” Estate Litigation – 2009 Update, CLEBC;
• “Challenging Inter Vivos Transfers and Beneficiary Designations” Estate Litigation Basics for Lawyers in 2010, CLEBC;
• “Delusions and Impact on Capacity” Estate Litigation Update in 2011, CLEBC;
• “Fraudulent Conveyances and inter vivos Transactions,”Estate Litigation Basics-2012 Update, CLEBC;
• “Reining in the Rogue Trustee/ Executor,” Estate Litigation-2014 Update;
• “Proving, Rectifying and Interpreting a Will under the WESA”, Estate Litigation – 2016 Update, CLEBC; and
• “Undue Influence: Identify, Minimize the Risk, Document the File”, Legal Education Society of Alberta.
• “Evidentiary Issues in Estate Litigation”, Estate Litigation Basics 2018, CLEBC
• “Curing Deficiencies and Rectification of Wills”, Estate Litigation Update 2018, CLEBC
• “Bad Fiduciaries”, Estate Litigation Update 2020, CLEBC
• “Promissory and Proprietary Estoppel”, Estate Litigation Essentials, TLA
• Claims Against Fiduciaries, Estate Litigation Update 2022, CLEBC