Catherine H. Kim

Catherine practices in estate and trust planning, as well as estate administration. She focuses on personal estate and business succession planning and advises on matters such as: wealth preservation, probate minimization and incapacity planning.  Catherine’s background in tax also equips her to navigate various income tax and regional real estate tax issues and to provide comprehensive solutions that complement her extensive background in estates and corporate law.  She works with accountants, investment professionals and other advisors to implement proactive and practical solutions for individuals, owner-managers of small and medium-sized businesses and professionals of various disciplines.

Examples of her experience include:

• • advanced estate and probate planning with tools like dual Wills and alter ego/joint partner trusts
  • advising on the use of family trusts and other ownership structures for income tax and succession planning
  • implementing estate freezes as a proactive strategy for business owners seeking to transfer business ownership to the next generation and minimize taxes arising on death
  • advising on corporate governance and preparing shareholders’ agreements
  • advising on charitable donations, including setting up private foundations

In her estate administration practice, Catherine assists executors with the various matters that arise over the course of an estate.  In addition to obtaining probate and administration grants, she advises on issues such as executor responsibilities, asset distribution, beneficiary rights, executor compensation and tax considerations. In her early years of practice, Catherine appeared before the B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal on matters involving the interpretation of wills and trust documents.

Catherine has completed the CPA Canada In-Depth Tax Course (2016 to 2019). She also served on the board of directors for the AWF Association of Women in Finance and on the executive of Canadian Bar Associations BC subsections.

Catherine joined Boughton Law as a summer student in 2011 and was called to the British Columbia bar in 2013. She obtained her Juris Doctor in 2012 from the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law, and her Bachelor of Arts degree (Psychology) in 2007 from the University of British Columbia.

Professional Activities

• Governance Director and Secretary, AWF Association of Women in Finance, 2017 to 2019
• Secretary, CBABC Banking Subsection, 2015
• Member, Canadian Tax Foundation
• Member, Canadian Bar Association, Taxation Law and Wills & Trusts subsections
• Member, Vancouver Bar Association
• Member, Canada Korea Business Association

Speaking Engagements

Presenter, “Considerations When Choosing Your Decision-Maker” for the Pacific Business & Law Institute‘s International Issues in Tax & Estate Planning seminar, May 2023

Presenter, “Wills and Estates Update” for the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. (CPABC) Vancouver Chapter, February 2020

Presenter, “Employment, Family, Tax and Estates Law” for Dress for Success, August 2019

Presenter, “Exit Strategies: The Purchase and Sale of a Business” for The Entrepreneur Conference, April 2017

Presenter, “Buy-Sell Agreements – Legal Considerations and Funding” for HollisWealth and Luft Financial, September 2015

Panelist, “Employees vs. Contractors: What your Business Should Know”; Spacekraft Presents: Creating Genius Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 2015