What About the Kids? What About the Grandkids?

What About the Kids? What About the Grandkids?

When Canadian snowbirds and cross-border families talk about their lives between two countries, they almost always start with themselves. Their winters. Their property. Their crossing. Their plan.

But cross-border living has never been just an individual decision. It ripples outward — through spouses, through adult children, through grandchildren, through the family members who will one day manage an estate, receive an inheritance, or simply try to cross the same border you’ve been crossing for decades.

The 2026 border environment has brought this dimension into sharper focus. New documentation requirements catch families off guard at the booth. Estate plans drafted ten years ago don’t account for the cross-border reality families live in today. And the question of what the next generation inherits — and under what tax burden — is one that far too few Canadian families have answered properly.

This post is for the family, not just the individual. Because getting cross-border planning right means protecting everyone in it.

The Border Is Now a Family Experience- Kids and Grandkids Included

The changes at the Canada–US border in 2026 do not apply only to the primary traveller. They apply to everyone in the car.

Since December 2025, the US biometric photo collection authority applies broadly to all non-US citizens at land crossings — including children. According to US Customs and Border Protection, age-based exemptions that previously applied to some younger travelers may no longer be consistently in place depending on the crossing location. For Canadian families travelling south together ; parents, grandparents, adult children, grandchildren every person should expect to be processed, photographed, and potentially questioned.

The families who have the smoothest experiences are the ones who prepared together. That means a family conversation before the trip, not a surprise at the booth. It means explaining to a ten-year-old why they will have their photo taken. It means making sure adult children who travel separately have their own documentation ready   because they cannot rely on yours.

More practically, it means ensuring every family member travelling to the US has their documents in order, knows the purpose of the visit, can confirm the address they’re staying at, and understands the rules around extended stays. The 30-day registration requirement does not care how old the traveller is.

The Estate Planning Gap That Every Cross-Border Family Has

Here is the single most common gap I find when reviewing cross-border families’ planning:

Their US property is not covered by their estate plan.

It sounds straightforward. It is surprisingly common. A Canadian couple owns a condo in Scottsdale. They have Canadian wills .Good ones, drafted recently, with everything in order. They have never been told by their Canadian lawyer, their Canadian financial advisor, or anyone else, that a Canadian will has no legal authority over US-sited assets.

When a Canadian resident dies owning US real property, that property passes through the probate process of the US state where it is located. This is true regardless of what the Canadian will says. According to the IRS guidelines on non-resident estate tax, non-resident aliens, which includes most Canadian snowbirds,  are subject to US estate tax on US-sited assets, with an applicable exemption of approximately USD $60,000 under current law. For a property worth $400,000 or $600,000 or more, the exposure is real and the planning opportunity is significant.

But beyond the tax question, there is a more immediate one: who can actually manage, maintain, sell, or transfer that property when you are no longer able to? A Canadian power of attorney has no legal effect in the US. Without a US-specific power of attorney and a US will, your family may find themselves legally unable to act on your behalf for your most significant asset.

This is not a niche problem. This is the default situation for the majority of Canadian snowbird property owners, because, no one told them otherwise.

What Your Children and Grandchildren Actually Need

Let’s be specific. If you are a Canadian snowbird with US property and the next generation in your life, here is what they need from you. Not eventually, but now.

A US-specific will

This document governs what happens to your US-sited property on death. It must be executed in compliance with the laws of the state where the property is located. It works alongside your Canadian will, not instead of it. According to Canada.ca guidance on cross-border estate matters, the failure to coordinate wills across jurisdictions is one of the most common and costly errors in cross-border estate planning.

A US power of attorney

If you become incapacitated while in the US — whether temporarily or permanently — someone needs the legal authority to manage your US property, access your US bank accounts, and deal with US institutions on your behalf. A Canadian power of attorney does not grant this. A US power of attorney, executed in the relevant state, does. Without it, your spouse or children may face a court process to obtain guardianship or conservatorship — expensive, slow, and stressful.

A clear document inventory

This is the simplest and most overlooked piece. Your family needs to know where your US documents are kept, what accounts exist, who the advisors are, and what the property details are. A single page with this information — stored somewhere your family can access — can save weeks of anguish in a crisis.

An honest conversation about inheritance

Many Canadian families have not had the conversation about what the US property represents in the estate. Is it intended for the children? Will it be sold? Is there a specific child who has an attachment to it? Are the grandchildren aware it exists? These conversations are not comfortable, but they are far less painful than the alternative — adult children discovering a complex cross-border estate situation for the first time at the worst possible moment.

The Inheritance Question: What Your Grandchildren Actually Receive

This is the longer-term dimension of the family conversation and the one most families defer indefinitely.

If you own US property and your estate plan does not address it properly, the people who inherit it may face a combination of US probate, US estate tax (if the property value exceeds the non-resident exemption), and Canadian tax on the same property — all at the same time, all in a jurisdiction they may have limited familiarity with. The cost and stress of this is avoidable with planning done in advance.

The key levers are ownership structure and beneficiary designation. For some families, restructuring the way the property is held — from personal to a cross-border trust, for example — can meaningfully reduce or eliminate the estate tax exposure. For others, the right answer is ensuring the property is sold during their lifetime and the proceeds distributed cleanly. Neither answer is universal, and the right one depends on the size of the estate, the family dynamics, and the intentions for the property.

What is universal is this: the answer requires cross-border estate planning with an advisor who holds credentials in both countries. A Canadian estate lawyer can handle the Canadian side. An American estate attorney can handle the US side. But coordinating the two — ensuring they work together rather than at cross purposes — requires someone who understands both simultaneously.

Having the Family Conversation Before Someone Forces It

The most important thing this article can offer is not a checklist. It is permission.

Permission to have the conversation with your children about what the cross-border life looks like, what the documents say, and what they would need to do if something happened to you. Permission to bring your adult children into the planning — not to burden them, but because they are already part of it whether they know it or not.

The families who navigate cross-border life most gracefully across generations are the ones who made it a shared conversation rather than a private plan. They engaged in real cross-border wealth management — not just for themselves, but for the people who come after them.

You built this life deliberately. The people who love you deserve to inherit it that way too.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do children need biometric data collected at the US border in 2026?

Yes. The US biometric collection rule that took effect in late 2025 applies to all non-US citizens at land crossings, including children. Age-based exemptions that previously applied to some younger travellers may no longer be consistently in place. Families should prepare children for a brief photograph at the border booth as part of routine processing.

What happens to a US property if a Canadian owner dies without a US estate plan?

A US-sited property will pass through the probate process of the state where it is located, regardless of what the Canadian will says. This can involve significant delay, cost, and public disclosure of the estate. A US-specific will and power of attorney are essential for any Canadian who owns US property.

Can my Canadian grandchildren inherit my US property?

Yes, but the inheritance may be subject to US estate tax if the property’s value exceeds the applicable exemption for non-US persons (approximately USD $60,000 under current law). The way the property is structured during your lifetime significantly affects what your grandchildren ultimately receive. Proper planning now can meaningfully reduce or eliminate this exposure.

If something happens to me in the US, can my Canadian family manage my affairs there?

Not without the right documents. A Canadian power of attorney has no legal authority over US assets. A US-specific power of attorney, executed in the relevant state, is required for a family member to step in and manage your US affairs in an emergency.