Bing
In Partnership with
In Partnership with
H&R Block
Sun Life
Meridian Credit Union
CAA
Air Miles

Signing a Will

At LegalWills.ca we have removed the obstacles to writing a Last Will and Testament.  It is convenient, low cost, and simple.  The MyWill™ service steps you through a series of questions in a "wizard" format.  All questions are written in plain language, so you don't have to be a legal expert to create your own Will.  You simply answer the questions, complete the details, and we automatically and instantly format a document that forms the basis of a legal Will, custom-made for your local jurisdiction.

"I used your service to write a Will for my dear wife Christine who passed away this year. The Will was easy to fill out and very straightforward. I never had one problem arise because of the Will." --- Keith Sutton, Surrey, B.C.   Read more testimonials

Below is more information about your Will, including instructions explaining how to sign your Will and make into a legal document in Canada, as well as information regarding how and when you should update your Will.

 

Structure Of The Will

The Will has the following structure:

  • It identifies the person making the Will (you), otherwise known as the "testator".
  • It revokes (cancels) all previous Wills, to make it clear that this Will replaces any earlier Wills you may have made.
  • It names the personal representative, called the "executor", for your Will.  This is the person who will be responsible for distributing your estate (property) according to the wishes outlined in your Will.
  • It leaves all of your property to your executor in trust. The executor, as the trustee of the estate, is given ownership of all of the property in your estate after you die, but must distribute the property according to the instructions in your Will.
  • It instructs the executor to pay all valid debts, expenses, claims and taxes on your estate.
  • It tells the executor to give your beneficiaries whatever is left in the estate after the debts, expenses, claims and taxes have been paid.
  • It gives the executor certain legal and financial powers to manage your estate, including power to keep or sell property in the estate, to invest cash, and to borrow money.
  • It names one or more people who should take custody of any minor children.

 

Printing The Will

The easiest way to print your Will is to click on the "Download and Print your Will" link located on the main menu of the MyWill™ service and save the PDF file on your local hard drive.  If you have Adobe Reader installed on your system (free download available from here), you can then open this PDF file and print it.

 

Signing The Will

In order to make the Will a legal document, you should first print it and read it thoroughly. Make sure that it accurately reflects your wishes and that you understand everything that is contained in the document. Once you are happy that it reflects your wishes, you must sign your Will in the presence of at least two witnesses, and the two witnesses must also sign the Will, in the presence of the "testator" (yourself) and in the presence of each other. You and the witnesses should also initial each page, so that it is not possible to alter any pages after the Will has been signed. A witness cannot be a beneficiary of the Will, they cannot be the spouse of a beneficiary (at the time of signing), they cannot be a minor, and, like the "testator" (you), they must be of sound mind.

For the signing procedure, gather the witnesses together in a room. You should make a formal statement that you have gathered them to witness the signing of your Will. They do not have to read the Will or know its contents. They are only required to witness your signature.

You should initial each page in turn, in the designated bottom corner of each page, and then sign your name in full on the last page, in full view of the witnesses. Each witness then in turn initials each page, in the designated bottom corner of each page, and signs the last page. Everybody must stay present until all of the signing is complete.

There should only be one original of the Will for everyone to sign. Copies can be created by photocopy. It is therefore a good idea to sign the original in blue ink, so that it is easily distinguishable from the photocopies. Do not sign the photocopies, as this will create duplicate originals which can be difficult to administer.

 

Affidavit of Execution

After you have passed away, the executor of your Will must prove that your Will was signed properly. In order to do this, at least one of the witnesses must confirm under oath that the Will was signed and witnessed correctly, including confirmation that they were personally present, that the person who executed the Will is known to that witness, that the Will was executed at the place and on the date specified, and that all witnesses and the testator were of legal age.

If none of the witnesses can be located, or if they are no longer living at the time of probate, the validity of the Will can still be proven by a witness who can testify that the handwriting and signature of the testator are genuine.

Another more convenient approach, however, is to have the witnesses sign under oath (in the presence of a Notary Public) an "affidavit of execution" which can then be appended to the Will. This is an optional step, but it eliminates the need for the witnesses to testify in court at the probating of the Will. If you wish to do this, you should contact a Notary Public in your area and have one of your witnesses accompany you with your Will to swear under oath that the signing of the Will was conducted correctly.  This is a very standard procedure.  Notary Publics can be found in your local telephone directory or "yellow pages".

 

After The Will Is Signed

After the Will is signed you must keep the original and all copies in a safe place, and let your executor know where the original is stored, along with the "affidavit of execution" if you have one. This can be done through the MyMessages™ service if you want to ensure that your executor or particular family members remember where your Will is located, or if you are reluctant to disclose the location of your Will prior to your death.  The MyFuneral™ service also allows you to document the location of your Will.

Although the unsigned version of your Will stored online at LegalWills.ca is not a legal document, if you wish you can allow one or more of your designated "Keyholders®" to have access to the Will that you have created here at LegalWills.ca. 

 

Assigning Keyholders®

You should use the MyKeyholders™ service to assign one or more personal "Keyholders®" to your MyWill™ service.  A "Keyholder®" is someone that you decide to trust with the power to unlock your wishes when the time is right.  Each Keyholder® is assigned a private, secure, randomly-generated "Keyholder® ID" which they will use to login and access your wishes when it is eventually required.

You can designate up to 20 different Keyholders® and you can even specify, for each Keyholder®, what specific information they can unlock.  In particular, you should give at least one of your Keyholders® the power to unlock and access your Will after you have passed away.  In addition to close friends or family members, it is a good idea to ensure that your executor is a Keyholder® for your MyWill™ service. This could be particularly important if your legally signed copy cannot be located (for example, if it burned in a house fire). In this situation, your LegalWills.ca Will can still provide some guidance to a loving family, as they can understand how you wanted your property to be distributed.

With a valid Keyholder® ID, your Keyholder® can access information such as your Will, Power of Attorney, health care directives or funeral wishes from anywhere in the world after you have passed away or become mentally incompetent.  Security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized premature access to your wishes are also available and are fully configurable by you.  These are described in more detail in the help text associated with the MyKeyholders™ service.

You must also let your designated Keyholders® know that you are asking them to take on the important responsibility of unlocking your Will when the time is right.  At the very least, they need to know their Keyholder® ID and the web address of this website.  You can choose to do this yourself.  However, to make this very easy for you, we recommend that you let us notify your Keyholder® for you.  There are 2 options:

  1. We can send them an email, customizable by you, which contains all of the information they need to know.  This is a free service.
  2. We can send them a custom-made wallet card by postal mail which contains all of their important information.  There is a small charge for this service, but it has the advantage of providing a permanent physical record which can be kept by your Keyholder® with their own important documents for easy retrieval.  This option is also handy if your Keyholder® doesn't have a known email address or if you have decided to share a single Keyholder® ID with more than one person.

More information on creating and notifying your Keyholders® can be found in the MyKeyholders™ service.

 

Updating Your Will

Your Will comes into effect only after your death and is strictly confidential until that time. Throughout your life, you are free to update your Will as often as you like, either by making an amendment, or by drafting a new Will. An amendment to an existing will is called a "codicil" and must follow the same form and structure of a full Will (i.e. it must be properly signed and witnessed). Consequently, writing a codicil is not usually much of a shortcut. In fact, it can lead to significant confusion. 

It is strongly recommended that if you wish to make changes to your Will, that you create a new Will and revoke and destroy all previous Wills. Each time you modify your existing Will stored here at LegalWills.ca, the MyWill™ service does just that --- it produces a new Will that revokes all of your previous Wills. Never, ever, make handwritten amendments to your printed Will.

Not updating a Will can be as bad as not having a Will at all.  Even if you feel that there have not been many changes in your life, your Will should be reviewed every year on a routine basis.

Beyond the routine reviews of your Will, you should consider updating your Will in the following circumstances:

  • If somebody named in your Will dies
  • If a major asset is purchased or sold
  • If you remarry, separate, divorce or cohabit
  • If you move to a new province/state or country
  • If your executor or alternate executor no longer wish to serve
  • If any new children are born, adopted, or pass away
  • If any person named in your Will becomes seriously ill
  • If your children reach the age of majority
  • If you wish to change some beneficiaries
  • If you wish to redistribute your property in a different way

 

After You Die

After you die and your Will has been located, your executor will apply for "probate" in Canada. This process confirms that the Will being presented to the court is the most recent, official copy of your Will, and your executor will be appointed by the court to administer your estate.

When your executor applies for probate, at least one of the witnesses will be required to confirm that he or she was actually a witness to the signing of your Will and that the correct legal formalities were followed. This evidence is usually in the form of an "affidavit of execution", where the witness swears under oath that everybody was present at the signing. This affidavit of execution can be signed at the same time the Will is signed, or when the Will is probated. If, at the time of probate, none of the witnesses are living, or none of the witnesses can be located, then the veracity of the signing procedures can be confirmed by authentication of the signatures.

There is plenty of official literature available to your executor to describe the process they need to follow after your death. If your executor is also a "Keyholder®" for your MyWill™ service, then they will also have access to specific step-by-step instructions which are made available to them at this website when they login to retrieve your Will.

How It Works

When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

You can also implement security mechanisms to prevent premature access to these documents. The entire process of creating your Will and other legal documents at LegalWills is seamless and iterative, meaning you can continue to make changes until you're happy with the final product.

Create Your Documents in Five Easy Steps

file
Create Your Documents

Creating your documents is quick and easy with LegalWills. Simply fill out the required fields and proceed to the next step.

key
Select Your Keyholders®

Entrust up to 20 individuals to unlock your wishes when the time is right.

pencil
Edit Your Documents for Up To One Year for Free

Make any changes to your documents using our online service.

lock
Keyholders® Request Access

When the time is right, your selected Keyholders® will have the ability to unlock your wishes.

folder
Documents are Released to Keyholders®

When the time comes and your Keyholders® request access to your documents, your wishes will be entrusted in their hands.

View Sample Will
As seen in
CTV
Toronto Star
Global News
CBC
Globe and Mail
MSN
Huffington Post
CHCH TV

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no requirement to use the services of a lawyer or notary public to prepare your own estate planning documents, including your Last Will and Testament.

The law that defines the legality of a Will is written specifically for each Province, State and Country, but in summary the law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and signed in the presence of two witnesses who cannot be beneficiaries to the Will.

Lawyers can certainly help you to prepare your Will, but everybody has a legal right to write their own Will. If you create a document using our service, it must be printed, signed and witnessed according to our instructions, and then it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.
Quite simply, because we do not provide you with legal advice.

We are giving you direct access to the same software that lawyers use to prepare their documents, but you are doing it yourself. However, if you need custom clauses written to cover an unusual situation, we cannot do that, and we recommend that you seek legal advice. For example, if you have a child with special needs, they would need a trust written for their inheritance. We don't do that.

In most cases, a document written using our service will be word-for-word identical to one prepared by a lawyer.

For a more thorough explanation, please read our blog article: The Cost of a Will in Canada – Explained.

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for $49.95CAD with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our lawyers for $69.00CAD. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this. (Currently not available in Ontario.)

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is $9.95CAD, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™, a Financial Power of Attorney, and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs $49.95CAD. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a lawyer each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. $11.95CAD will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at $29.95CAD, 10 years at $39.95CAD, 25 years at $79.95CAD ($3.20CAD per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 24 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay $11.95CAD to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

Yes.  A Power of Attorney (also known as a Power of Attorney for Finances) and Living Will (also known as a Power of Attorney for Health Care), are very important documents that should be created and updated at the same time as your Will.

This website allows you to create a Will, Expatriate Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will .
Here are just a few differences:

  • We have designed our legal document creation services to be of the best quality available today.    We have evaluated many existing do-it-yourself kits and web-based services, including several of the most popular Canadian legal will kits. We were shocked by the poor quality, limited instructions, and low value for money that many of these do-it-yourself kits provide consumers. 

  • Incredible value for money.   Our membership pricing model allows us to provide you with the most value for your money at prices that are unprecedented in the legal industry. We worked with lawyers to bring you this service, and we paid for their legal services so you don't have to. 

  • Plain language help and instructions.  In addition, all of our services provide you with complete instructions and answer your questions in everyday language, free of legal industry jargon.  We have developed our services based on the requirements of the public, not dictated by the legal profession.  Our wizards, help and information are also designed to be the best on the market and are kept up-to-date on an ongoing basis.  

  • Create your Will from the comfort of your own home.  No lawyer required.  Our unique approach allows you to make use of the ultimate convenience of the Internet to write your Will at your own pace, online, and to make changes online at any time free of charge. 

  • Free unlimited updates.  Don't pay a lawyer every time you need to update your Will. We allow your Will to be kept securely online so that you can make free unlimited updates for as long as you are a member.

  • You can still have it reviewed by a lawyer. We have worked with lawyers in Canada to bring you these services and to ensure that they are of the highest quality. But if you wish, we can still arrange for your documents to be reviewed by one of our lawyers, who will check the documents for consistency and completeness. (Currently not available in Ontario.)

  • The Keyholder® Advantage. You can take advantage of our unique messaging service which allows you to describe the exact location of your Will and to provide a detailed list of assets for your Executor. All for no extra charge. When you pass away, let us worry about communicating this information to the people you specify. There is simply no other company that provides such a complete and convenient service to their customers. For more information, read about The Keyholder® Advantage .

  • We employ a strong focus on protecting the privacy and security of your information.   We use industry standard encryption algorithms for storing all of your private information, and the design of our services ensures that the contents of your information are made available to the specific people designated by yourself, and only at the appropriate time. 

  • Keep informed and up to date.  If you wish, we can inform you by email about any changes in legislation which may have occurred in your jurisdiction that may require changes to your Will.  Or we can send you simple email reminders, no more than once a year, to remind you to consider updating your Will if any significant changes have occurred in your life.  

Other websites and do-it-yourself kits simply do not compare.

Let Us Answer Your Questions

See All Questions
Creating a Will and other legal documents doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. We have hundreds of articles that simplify the process.
Browse Our Blog
Feel free to contact us during office hours, or get answers instantly with our online chatbot.
Contact Us

Popular Articles

Browse Our Blog
Last Will and Testament

The cost of a Will in Canada – explained

Two of the most frequently asked questions we receive at LegalWills.ca are:

1. How come your Wills are so cheap?
2. Why are your Wills so expensive?

In this article, we will discuss the cost of a Will. We will explain the different ways to prepare a Will, why each approach costs what it does, what you get and don't get when preparing a Will in a certain way.
Continue reading
Help to create a Will

The Ultimate Guide to Preparing a Will

Everybody should have a Will. Not making a Will is unfair to those you leave behind.

Even if your plans for estate distribution are simple and you do not have many assets, it is still much easier for the people that you leave behind to work with a Will than to resolve the estate of a person who has died intestate (without a Will).

If you do not feel that you have significant assets now, remember that your Will only comes into effect when you die, not now, and you cannot possibly predict how large your estate will be when your Will is required.
Continue reading
Making a Last Will and Testament

Making a Will in Canada – the Complete Guide to your Options

Your Last Will and Testament allows you to speak after you have passed away. It does absolutely nothing and has no powers whatsoever all the time you are alive.

But as soon as you die your Will has two key functions: it allows you to make key appointments and it allows you to describe the distribution of your assets. These assets include money, possessions, houses, investments, everything that you own.

Making a Will is one of the most important responsibilities of every adult, and it should not be put off until a distant day in the future when you are "old".
Continue reading