Brian Cohen

About Brian Cohen

Families with significant wealth bring Brian Cohen in to plan how it passes to the next generation, and to keep the tax bill along the way in check. Brian is a Toronto partner at Gowling WLG who co-leads the firm's national private client services group, and the day-to-day work spans estate planning, trusts and personal tax, with high net worth individuals weighing their succession options at the centre of it. A good deal of it crosses borders, such as wills that have to carry assets held in several countries to heirs scattered around the world.

Charities are the other side of Brian's practice. Donors, public and private foundations and not-for-profits come to Brian on the tax consequences of how they're set up, registered and run, and on planned giving. And when an estate ends up in a fight, Brian steps in as litigation counsel. One example is Re Kaptyn Estate, where Brian acted for the Children's Lawyer.

Brian came to private client law through tax, and it was the personal side of the work, and the chance to make a direct difference for clients, that made it impossible to pass up. Called to the Ontario bar in 1999, Brian had finished an LLB at Osgoode Hall in 1997 after a Western BA that earned a place on the Dean's List. Brian is also a past winner of the Ontario Bar Association's Hoffstein Book Prize in Trusts and Estates.

STEP Canada has been a constant thread. Brian joined its national board in 2015, served a term as national treasurer, has chaired and served as secretary of the Toronto branch, and is now Deputy Chair, after co-chairing the national conferences in 2015 and 2016. In 2019, Brian was elected a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, one of only four of that year's 42 new fellows based outside the U.S. Other professionals hear Brian speak regularly too, at Law Society and OBA programs in Toronto and at STEP conferences as far afield as the Bahamas and St. Lucia.