STEP Canada Trust and Estate Practitioner Designation

Reynolds Mirth is pleased to announce that partner Maya Gordon has recently received her Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation! This achievement recognizes what Maya’s clients and colleagues already know: that her depth and experience in trusts and estate law make her a sought-after practitioner.

STEP is an international professional body comprised of practitioners whose focus on Trust and Estate work helps families plan for their future. Full STEP members, known as Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEPs), are internationally recognized for their expertise. They help STEP raise the public profile of trust and estate work.

Through their rigorous training standards, the TEP designation is an active membership that includes continuing education and maintaining training standards.

STEP Canada is also active in making representations of a technical nature to government, policymakers and related professional bodies to promote a better understanding of trusts and estates and improve related law and policy.

As an estate lawyer practicing since 2011, Maya helps individuals and families craft comprehensive estate plans.

This involves preparing Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney and Personal Directives, and, where necessary, additional documents, including family trusts. She also works with executors, administrators and trust companies with estate administration duties, with the goal of bringing an estate to completion. This includes obtaining Grants of various kinds (Probate, Administration, Re-Sealing), helping with administering the estate, accounting to beneficiaries and assisting with issues that arise in estates, such as beneficiary disputes, family maintenance and support claims, or missing/non-compliant documents.

She also works in the area of Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship, assisting families to be empowered to make decisions for the ones they love.

Maya is in her fifth year of teaching at the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta in the areas of wills and estate administration. She also previously taught Estate Procedures at MacEwan University and regularly provides seminars on estate topics to clients, pro bono groups or the public.

Maya appreciates that, for many, dealing with estate matters can feel daunting or uncomfortable. She strives to create an experience for her clients that helps to diffuse those feelings. She feels gratified every time a client tells her the experience was much more pleasant than anticipated.

Congratulations, Maya, on this achievement!