Rhonda Johnson, MBA, TEP

Rhonda Johnson focuses on trusts, estate planning and estate administration solutions for individuals, trustees, business founders and next generations, including helping clients with connections to Alberta, BC and NWT.

Her practice includes drafting and advising on trust structures, multiple wills planning, incapacity planning, wealth transfer strategies and legacy and multi-generational planning. She is active in STEP Canada and is currently Deputy Chair of the programming committee for STEP Canada's annual national conference. She is also currently on the editorial board of the Trusts, Estates and Pensions Journal.

Rhonda has been voted by her peers as 'Lawyer of the Year' for 2025, as published by Best Lawyers, for her work in Trusts and Estates in Edmonton, and is listed in The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.

Presentations

• Co-presenter: Trusts and Trust Reporting: A Brave New World, STEP Edmonton March 2025
• Co-presenter: Equal is in the Eye of the Beholder: Division of Complicated Estates, STEP Calgary February 2025
• Co-presenter and Moderator, “Ssshh – I Have a Secret (Trust) for You! (And How to Fix Trust Mistakes!),” STEP National Conference, June 2024
• Co-presenter, “Beautiful BC – Except When You Die: Estate Planning for Clients with Assets in BC and Alberta,” STEP Okanagan, April 2024
• Moderator, “Privacy Issues for Fiduciaries,” STEP National Conference, June 2023
• Presenter, “Alberta’s New Trustee Act,” CBA Alberta, Wills and Estates, 2023
• Presenter and Moderator, “Estate Planning,” Legal Education Society of Alberta, 2023
• Moderator, “Documenting Intentions – Honouring Mens Rea or Paving the Road to Hell?,” STEP National Conference, June 2022
• Moderator, “Gift Wrapping the Pros and Cons of Inter Vivos Gift Giving,” STEP National Conference, June 2021
• Co-moderator, “Conflicts of Law in Estate Planning across Canada,” STEP National Speakers Series, March 2021
• Moderator, “The Intersection between Estate Law and Family Law,” STEP National Conference, 2020
• Moderator, “The Battle of 2 Greats – Privacy v. Transparency,” STEP National Conference, 2019

Publications

• Co-author, “Bringing Principles into Tune with Practice: Pour-Over Wills, Secret Trusts, and Fixing Trust Mistakes,” STEP Inside, Volume 23, No. 3, October 2024
• Author, “Alberta’s New Trustee Act – Highlights and Practice Ideas,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2023
• Co-author, “Documenting Intentions: Honouring Intentions or Paving the Road to Hell?,” STEP Inside, November 2022
• Author, “Another Cautionary Tale for Executors: Case Comment on Muth Estate,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2020
• Author, “Formalities and Intentions: Who Pours Over Whom? The State of Pour-Over Wills in Canada,” Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal, August 2019