Kimberly Whaley

Kimberly A. Whaley, CS, TEP, LLM, QArb, is the founding partner at WEL Partners. Kimberly's practice focuses on the resolution of estate, trust, and related disputes. Practice areas include:

- Will, Estate & Trust Disputes

- Advising Fiduciaries

- Dependant’s Support Claims

- Passing of Estate, Trustee, Attorney, Guardian & Fiduciary Accounts

- Capacity Proceedings

- Guardianships

- Power of Attorney Disputes

- Consent & Capacity Board Proceedings

- End-of-Life, Treatment Decisions & Medical Assistance in Dying

- Elder Law/Elder Financial Abuse

- Solicitor’s Negligence

- Representation of Persons Under Disability

- Probate Applications

- Opinions

- Appeals

- Agency Services

- Approval Motions Under Rule 7

KIMBERLY A. WHALEY, CS, TEP, LLM, QArb, Founding Partner, WHALEY ESTATE LITIGATION PARTNERS (WEL PARTNERS), a dispute resolution firm based in Toronto, practicing throughout Ontario. WEL Partners has been repeatedly ranked by Canadian Lawyer as a Top 10 Boutique in Trusts & Estates in Canada.

Since 1999, Kim has practiced in both litigation and mediation in the areas of Estate, Trust, Fiduciary, Wealth Succession, Power of Attorney, Property Gifting, Fiduciary Accounting, Guardianship, Dependant Support, Elder Law disputes and the related interplay of capacity, undue influence, and equity.

Kim is the recipient of the 2026 OBA Award for Excellence in Elder Law, and the 2024 OBA Award of Excellence in Trusts and Estates Law. Kim and WEL Partners are ranked by Chambers & Partners in their Private Wealth Disputes, High Net Worth (Canada) guide in Band 1. Kim has been included in the Global Best in Law Top Wills, Trust and Estates Law Boutique Law Firm and Lawyer International’s Legal 100. Kim and WEL Partners have been repeatedly ranked by peer review in BEST LAWYERS.

Kim is called as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (non-practising); is a TEP, full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, Canada, and is currently serving a second term as Canadian Representative on STEP Worldwide Council as well as a member of the STEP Mental Capacity Special Interest Group. Kim is STEP WORLDWIDE Conference Chair, 2026. Kim is designated as a Certified Specialist in Estates & Trusts Law by the Law Society of Ontario. Kim is or has been on various advisory boards including the Ontario Securities Commission, Seniors’ Expert Advisory Committee; Estate Planning and Litigation Cambridge Forums Inc., Steering Committee; Toronto Police Service Seniors Community Consultative Committee Co-Civilian Chair; Ontario Estates Bench-Bar Liaison; the Canadian Center for Elder Law (B.C.) (CCEL), as co-chair, and fellow; CanAge fellow; and an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. Kimberly is a certified Neutral of the Canadian Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, Ontario Chapter. Kim is an International Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC).

Kim has published numerous articles in Canadian, International, Legal and Medical Journals. Kim regularly teaches and presents at National and International educational and thought leadership conferences for lawyers, doctors and other professionals. Kim has taught as an adjunct professor at Queen’s University, the University of Toronto, Western University, and has been a frequent guest lecturer and sessional instructor at various Canadian Universities. Kim trained at the Harvard Mediation Intensive on Negotiation, Advanced Mediation at Harvard Law School, and at the Institute for Conflict Management. Kim received her Certificate from the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society (TCAS) Gold Standard Course in Commercial Arbitration in April 2026. Kim is designated as a Qualified Arbitrator (Q. Arb.) by the ADR Institute of Canada (ADRIC). Kim is a Co-editor of the Estates and Trusts Journal, Carswell, Thomson Reuters Canada.

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Canada

The Canadian Academy of Distinguished Neutrals

Canadian Bar Association

Ontario Bar Association

Law Society of Ontario

Toronto Lawyers Association

Advocates’ Society

Estate Planning Council

American Bar Association

International Fellow, American College of Trust & Estate Counsel

Qualified Arbitrator, ADR Institute of Canada

Concepts of Ageism: A Consideration of Autonomy and Protection, ETPJ, Vol. 45, No.1, April 2026

Testing Testamentary Freedom, Trust Quarterly Review, STEP Journal, March 2026

Joint Ownership in Canada: A Critical Review, Federated Press - Personal Tax & Estate Planning, Vol. XIV, No.2., November 2025

The Complexities of Joint Ownership in Canada, ETPJ, Vol. 44, No. 2, September 2025

Experts in Evidence, STEP Journal, July 2025.

The Evidentiary Barrier to Justice: A Cautionary Commentary on the Minimum Evidentiary Threshold for a Will Challenge, Estates and Trusts Reports (96 ETR-Can-RT-418), May, 2025

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Parties and Joinder, Rule 9 Estates and Trusts, July 2024

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Parties and Joinder, Rule 10, Representation Order, July 2024

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Rule 73, (Reciprocal Enforcement of United Kingdom Judgments), July 2024

Personal Tax and Estate Planning, Federated Press, Vol. XII, No.2, 2023: Predatory Marriages, November 2023

STEP Journal Issue 5, 2023: Ontario’s new will validation legislation: execution and intention, October 2023

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Parties and Joinder, Rule 9 Estates and Trusts, March 2023

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Parties and Joinder, Rule 10, Representation Order, March 2023

Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Rule 73, (Reciprocal Enforcement of United Kingdom Judgments), March 2023

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Predatory Marriage: An Emerging Medicolegal Issue, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2023 (Online First).

STEP Toronto Connection: Romance Scans Relating Perpetrated on Older Adults, November 2022, Vol. 10 No.2

Rules of Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario: Rules of Civil Procedure Chapters, Parties and Joinder, Rule 9, Estates and Trusts; and Rule 10 - Representation Order, October 2022

Trusts & Trustees, Vol. 28, No.7, Resolution of Estate and Trust Disputes: Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Canada, September 2022

ETPJ, Incapable and Capable Rights: The Rights of Adults in Vulnerable Circumstances – Sledgehammer v Swiss Army Knife, Vol: 41-4, August 2022

Widdifield on Executors and Trustees, 6th ed., (Toronto: Thomson Reuters Canada) at p. RA-630: Inter Vivos versus Testamentary Undue Influence:

Origins, Differences and Recent Developments, September 2021

STEP Vulnerable Client Symposium Final Report, Panel Presentation, June 2021

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry: Susceptibility to Undue Influence: The Role of the Medical Expert in Estate Litigation, June 2021

Estates, Trusts & Pensions Journal: Inter Vivos Versus Testamentary Undue Influence: Origins, Differences and Recent Development, April (2021), 40 E.T.P.J. 269

Money and Family Law: Mediation Confidentiality and Settlement Privilege, March 2021, Issue 36-3

STEP Canada Connection Toronto Branch Newsletter, The Ever-Evolving Role of Section 3 Counsel, November 2020, Vol.8 No. 3

STEP Canada Connection Toronto Branch Newsletter, Kumra v Kumra: Was the Guardian of Property Bound by Previously Executed Minutes of Settlement? September 2020, Vol. 8 No. 1

STEP Canada Connection Toronto Branch Newsletter, Lessons Learned from Recent Passing of Accounts Cases in Ontario, May 2020, Vol. 7. No.7

The Advocates’ Quarterly: “Capacity to Instruct Counsel”, Vol. 50, April 2020

STEP Canada Connection Toronto Branch Newsletter, Determining the “Heirs-at-Law”: Disinherited Daughter Inherits on Intestacy in Re Vaudrey,

2019 ONSC 7552, February 2020, Vol.7 No. 5

The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law (IAETL), Oxford University Press, Trust & Trustees: “Resolution of Estates and Trust Disputes: Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Canada”, February 2020

Armstrong, Estate Administration: A Solicitor’s Reference Manual, release 2020-1: “Finding Missing Beneficiaries” and “The Essential Guide To Estate Dispute Mediations: Unique Challenges and Creative Solutions for Lawyers”.

2019

JUST magazine: “Approaching Capacity: Addressing a Growing Issue in an Aging World”, December 5, 2019

The Advocates Quarterly: “The Essential Guide to Estate Dispute Mediations: Unique Challenges and Creative Solutions for Lawyers”, Volume 50, Issue 2, October 2019

The Advocates Quarterly: “Finding Missing Beneficiaries”, Volume 50, Issue 2, October 2019

The Advocates Quarterly: “Costs in Estate Litigation”, Volume 50, Issue 2, October 2019

Estates and Trusts Pension Journal (ETPJ): “Posthumously-Conceived Children Born in Ontario: What are their Rights and What do Estate Trustees Need to Know? Volume 38, Number 4, August 2019

Money and Family Law: What is Proper and Adequate Interim Support and How Is It Measured? May 2019, Issue 34-5

Advocates Quarterly, “Dispute over Human Remains”, April 2019, Volume 49, Issue 4

STEP Journal, April 2019, “Not a Perfect Science Volume 27, Issue 3

Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society (TCAS)

Gold Standard Course in Commercial Arbitration

2025 - 2026

Harvard Law School

Harvard Mediation Intensive Program Certificate

2024 - 2024

Cambridge University, College of Law

Diploma in Professional Skills (Cantab.)

1995 - 1997

Nottingham Law School

Diploma in Law, Common Professional Examinations (LLB)

1992 - 1994

University of Bristol

Masters of International Law (LL.M.)

1991 - 1992

University of Exeter

LLB

1989 - 1990

Western University

BA

1984 - 1988