Digital Estates & Crypto Assets: Enhancing Estate Planning for the Contemporary Client

The CBA is a professional organization that provides educational and networking opportunities for lawyers. Representing more than 36,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada, the CBA is committed to enhancing the professional and commercial interests of a diverse membership and to protecting the independence of the judiciary and the Bar.

Matthew is Chair of Osler’s Digital Assets and Blockchain practice and is a partner in the Corporate Group. Matthew’s practice focuses on securities and financial regulatory matters and the design of sophisticated corporate structures for clients in the digital asset industry. He regularly advises on stablecoin structures, tokenized securities, cryptoasset trading, custody arrangements, and the development of regulatory-compliant models for emerging technologies. Much of his work involves guiding clients through complex interactions with Canadian regulators and designing bespoke regulatory structures involving registration, exemptive relief applications, disclosure requirements, and digital asset operational flows. He is also ranked in Chambers Fintech (Canada) 2024.Matthew’s clients include cryptoasset trading platforms, stablecoin issuers, digital asset custodians, real world asset-backed token issuers, non-fungible token (NFT) issuers, cryptocurrency ATM providers, cryptocurrency miners, cryptocurrency investors, and legal entities connected to decentralized finance protocols. Matthew was one of the first Canadian lawyers to act for cryptocurrency companies in Canada and is regularly called to give his opinion to the media on issues relating to cryptocurrency and Canadian law, and has been quoted in Fortune Magazine, Reuters, The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, The Logic, The Toronto Star, Yahoo News, the Winnipeg Free Press and has also been interviewed on CBC radio and CBC television. Matthew is also an author on Coindesk.com, the world’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain news site. Matthew sits on a variety of advisory boards of his clients and is currently an advisor to the Alberta Securities Commission’s New Economy Advisory Committee.

Geoff Costeloe is Associate General Counsel at Celestia Labs, a blockchain infrastructure company building modular networks for decentralized applications where he has advised on the launch of cryptocurrency assets valued in the billions. A lawyer focused on digital assets and emerging technologies, Geoff has spent nearly a decade advising on legal, tax, and commercial issues in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. Before joining Celestia, he worked in private practice in Vancouver as an estate and tax lawyer and in-house with blockchain companies. Geoff also owns Immutable Law Corporation, where he assists BC lawyers dealing with crypto in their practice.

As a Senior Trust Specialist with the Professional Practice at RBC Royal Trust, Sayuri provides legal support on estate and trust account escalations, guidance on Indigenous Wealth matters, and leads a variety of regulatory and policy initiatives that impact RBC Royal Trust, including addressing digital assets in estate administration. A graduate of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, Sayuri holds a Juris Doctor degree and worked as an articling student with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General to advance the interests of children in estates and trusts matters. She was called to the bar in 2017, and practiced estate, trust, and capacity litigation at one of Toronto's top estate litigation firms before joining RBC Royal Trust. Sayuri is a regular contributor to various publications about advances in the law, particularly in today's increasingly complex world. Her publications include an upcoming paper in the Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal exploring issues in the drafting and administration of trusts for Indigenous communities and co-authoring a chapter on estate planning issues for LGBTQ2+ individuals in LGBTQ2+ Law: Practice Issues and Analysis, a multidisciplinary book that examines issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity in various areas of law.

Xiaopeng (Leo) Yuan is a lawyer at Infinity Law with a practice focused on the legal issues that intersect real estate, business, and personal planning. Born and raised in Beijing, China, he moved to Canada in 2001 and earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Queen's University, followed by a Juris Doctor from the University of Victoria. Leo assists clients with a broad range of matters, including real estate transactions, estate planning, and immigration files-particularly business immigration and sponsorship immigration. He also advises entrepreneurs and families on establishing and maintaining business interests in British Columbia. Deeply committed to community service, Leo is currently the Chair of the Canadian Bar Association's Wills, Estates and Trusts Victoria section and serves as a board member of the Victoria Chinatown Care Society. He has volunteered with the Victoria Immigration and Refugee Centre and received a 2019 Community Partnership Award in recognition of his contributions.