Nicole Garton is President and General Counsel of Heritage Trust Company Inc., an independent trust company regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority, which she co-founded with Brian Dougherty in 2018. Heritage Trust acts as executor, trustee, and attorney under power of attorney, with particular expertise in complex estates, family conflict, operating businesses, and beneficiaries who require additional care or oversight.
Called to the bar of British Columbia in 2001, Nicole has 25 years of experience in estates, trusts, family enterprise, and dispute resolution. She is recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada™ for Trusts and Estates and Family Law and is a Trust and Estate Practitioner, Chartered Mediator, and Family Enterprise Advisor. She is also a Past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association Wills and Trusts Subsection (Vancouver).
Nicole is the author of The Canadian Executor’s Guide, Before It’s Too Late: The Estate Organizer for Canadians, Harnessing Conflict: How Family Businesses Can Survive and Thrive, and Family Offices in Canada. Through the Your Estate Matters podcast and the Canadian Estate Club, she provides Canadians with clear, practical education about estate planning and administration.
Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, with a focus on preventing and managing conflict in family businesses. She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and the Estate Planning Councils of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
