Not everyone needs a will at every life stage — but the moment you do need one, you usually need it urgently. This guide walks through every stage of adult life in Canada and explains what changes, what becomes critical, and when to act.
If you are 19, in school, with no significant savings or property, you do not strictly need a will. Provincial intestacy laws will distribute your modest estate to your parents (or per the relevant statute) — and that may align with what you would have wanted anyway.
There are still two things worth doing now: name beneficiaries on any RESP, RRSP, or TFSA you hold, and consider a basic POA for Personal Care. Incapacity from accident or illness can affect anyone at any age, and a $99 personal care POA can prevent your family from needing court appointments to make medical decisions for you.
When you start your first salaried job, three things change: you have a workplace pension or RRSP matching, you may have group life insurance through your employer, and you start accumulating assets in your own name.
At this stage, beneficiary designations matter more than a will. Sign the beneficiary forms for your RRSP, TFSA, pension, and group life. These designations override your will for those specific accounts — meaning the asset passes directly to the named beneficiary without probate.
A simple will becomes worthwhile if you have any non-registered savings, valuable personal property, or want to specify who handles your final affairs. At $99.99 the cost-benefit makes sense once your total assets exceed about $20,000.
Married couples and common-law partners should both have wills. The reason: provincial intestacy laws don't always treat partners the way you might assume.
In Ontario, a married spouse without a will has a guaranteed first portion (the preferential share, $350,000 as of March 2021), then shares the remainder with any other relatives — including your parents and siblings. If you wanted everything to go to your spouse, you must say so in a will.
Common-law partners are treated very differently than married spouses under intestacy laws in most provinces. In Ontario, a common-law partner has no automatic intestacy rights at all — meaning if you die without a will, your common-law partner inherits nothing under the Succession Law Reform Act. A will is the only way to ensure they inherit.
If you have children under 18, you need a will. Not next year — now. The reason has nothing to do with money. It is about who raises your children if you and your partner die.
Without a will, the appointment of a guardian for minor children defaults to the courts. The court will consider applications from family members, weigh competing claims, and decide. This process can take months, during which children may be placed with extended family the parents never would have chosen.
A will allows you to name a guardian (and a backup guardian) explicitly. While the court technically has the final word on guardianship and isn't bound by your nomination, in practice courts give very strong weight to the parents' stated wishes if they are documented.
If you own a home with your spouse as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the home passes to the surviving spouse automatically, outside of your will. Many couples treat this as 'all the will I need.' That is a mistake.
What happens when both joint owners die in the same accident, or when the surviving spouse dies later without updating their estate plan? What happens to the contents of the home, vehicles, savings accounts, registered investments, and personal effects? What about your minor children, your wishes about cremation or burial, your charitable bequests?
Owning a home means having a level of estate complexity that justifies a will. The home itself may pass automatically, but the rest of your estate is governed by either your will or by intestacy law if no will exists.
If you own private corporation shares, a partnership interest, or a sole proprietorship, your estate plan should consider both a will and a separate business succession structure.
In Ontario, business owners often use a multiple-wills strategy: a primary will for personal assets that pass through probate, and a secondary will for private corporation shares that do not require probate. This significantly reduces Ontario's 1.5% Estate Administration Tax on the corporate value.
Beyond probate, business owners should think about who runs the business after their death — the executor named in the will, a separate management team, or a buy-sell agreement with a co-shareholder. This is one situation where a wills lawyer with corporate experience is worth the cost.
If you are 65 or older with a will already in place, you should review it every 3–5 years and after any major life event: death of a spouse or executor, marriage or divorce, sale of significant assets, birth of grandchildren, change in your relationship with a beneficiary.
Tax and estate rules change. The Ontario preferential share increased from $200,000 to $350,000 in March 2021. Manitoba abolished probate fees in November 2020. Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 2024. A will from 2010 may still be valid, but the assumptions baked into it may no longer match the current legal landscape.
Seniors should also consider whether their POAs reflect current preferences, and whether the named attorneys are still alive, willing, and capable. POA review is even more important than will review because the document may need to be used while you are still alive.
If you have children from a previous relationship and a current spouse, you have one of the most contested estate planning situations in Canadian law. The default outcomes — under intestacy or under simple 'all to spouse, then to children' wills — can produce results that surprise everyone.
Common scenario: you leave everything to your second spouse, expecting they will then leave it to your children. Your spouse remarries after your death, or has children of their own with no obligation to your children, and your assets ultimately pass to people you never knew. There is no legal mechanism in a simple will that prevents this.
Solutions exist: spousal trusts, life interests with remainder to your children, separate gifts to spouse and children at first death. These are not DIY structures. A blended family with significant assets is one of the clearest cases for working with a wills and estates lawyer.
If you own real property in another country — a family home in India, a vacation property in Florida, an apartment in Portugal — your Canadian will may not be sufficient to transfer it. Many countries require a locally compliant will, or have forced heirship rules that override foreign wills.
Recent immigrants to Canada often have a will from their country of origin. That document may not be valid for Canadian assets, or may produce conflicting results when applied alongside Canadian intestacy rules. The standard approach is to make a Canadian will for Canadian assets and either update or replace the home-country will for foreign assets.
Willbeing offers an International Will package designed exactly for these situations: a Washington Convention-compliant will that operates alongside a primary Canadian will, with country-specific provisions for the target jurisdiction.