John Poyser is a partner with Tradition Law LLP Estates and Trusts in Winnipeg.  He also has an office and practices in Calgary as the Wealth and Estate Law Group.  In Toronto he practices as a senior litigation lawyer with WEL Partners, a firm dealing exclusively with wills and estate litigation.

His practice is limited to estate litigation.  He helps clients in Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario who need to challenge or defend transfers of wealth made by wills, gifts and trusts.  He also assists clients who anticipate a fight over their estate plans and wish to take protective steps while still alive.

Nationally, he is a past chair of the Wills, Estates and Trusts Section of the Canadian Bar Association (the “CBA”), and a past Deputy Chair of the Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners (“STEP”).   Internationally, he sat as a member of STEP’s Worldwide Council from 2013 to 2016.  He has also filled various roles at a provincial level, serving as co-chair of the Wills and Estates Section of the Manitoba Bar Association, and chair of the Winnipeg Chapter of STEP.

As an author, he wrote Capacity and Undue Influence, an eight-hundred page textbook published by Carswell in 2014 canvassing the law relating to the transfer of wealth by will, gift, and trust, and with attacks on those transfers. A second edition is in progress.  As a prior project, he coauthored ten editions of a textbook for Carswell entitled The Taxation of Trusts, a Practitioner’s Guide, dealing with taxation and planning issues relating to trusts and estates.  John is also a regular contributor of articles, practice notes, and case comments appearing in The Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal.

Founding Editor of The National Concordance, he created a compendium that assembles and compares succession laws across Canada, jointly published on-line by the CBA and Westlaw ECarswell.  He is one of the Associate Editors of The Estates and Trusts Reports.

As a lecturer, he speaks across Canada for STEP, law societies, and bar associations.