The longest form on this site, and deliberately so. Every legal term is explained underneath the question in plain language, so you never have to guess what is being asked. Completed properly, this contains what is needed to draft a will and both powers of attorney.
Most people who die without a will did not decide against making one. They simply ran out of time, or assumed the people they love would work it out. In Ontario, dying without a valid will is called dying intestate, and the consequence is not that nothing happens. The consequence is that the province's own formula decides who receives your property, and a court decides who is put in charge of it. That formula has no idea who depended on you, who cared for you, or what you promised.
Under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act, a married spouse receives a fixed first amount, known as the preferential share, currently $350,000 for deaths on or after 1 March 2021. What remains is then divided. With one child, the spouse takes half of the remainder and the child takes the other half. With two or more children, the spouse takes one third and the children share the other two thirds. If there is no spouse and no children, the estate passes to parents, then to brothers and sisters, then to nieces and nephews, and then to more distant relatives. Where no relative can be found at all, the estate goes to the Crown.
This is the rule that surprises people most, and the one that causes the most hardship. In Ontario, a common-law partner has no automatic right to inherit on an intestacy, no matter how many years you lived together or whose name is on the mortgage. Their only route is to apply to the court as a dependant, which means legal costs, delay, and a public dispute at the worst possible time. A single page of a will would have prevented all of it.
A minor cannot receive an inheritance directly. Without a will containing a trust, their share is generally paid into court and held there until they turn eighteen, when the entire sum is released at once. No trustee pays for their education, their braces, or their first year of university in the meantime, and nobody exercises judgment about handing a large amount of money to an eighteen-year-old.
A will lets you name a guardian for minor children. It is not absolute, because in Ontario the appointment lasts ninety days and the person must then apply to the court to be confirmed, but it carries real weight with a judge and it tells everyone what you wanted. Without it, relatives may disagree, and a court decides between them with no guidance from you.
With a will, you choose your executor, and they can begin work immediately. Without one, a family member must apply to be appointed estate trustee, and the court may require a bond, an insurance policy protecting the estate, which costs money and can be difficult to obtain, particularly if the applicant lives outside Ontario. Meanwhile the bank account is frozen, the mortgage still falls due, and the funeral still has to be paid for.
Money left directly to someone receiving ODSP can disqualify them from the benefits they live on. A will can direct that their share be held in a Henson trust, a trust where the trustee has absolute discretion over payments, so support continues. An intestacy offers no such protection, and the family often discovers this only after the damage is done.
It names the person you trust to administer your estate, and a replacement if they cannot. It appoints a guardian for your children and a trustee to manage money for them at an age you choose. It gives specific things to specific people, so the ring and the photographs do not become an argument. It can reduce estate administration tax, currently about 1.5% of estate value above $50,000, and it can be paired with powers of attorney so that someone can act for you while you are alive but unable to decide, after a stroke, an accident, or a diagnosis of dementia. Most of all, it replaces a formula with your intentions.
A will only operates after death. If you lose capacity while living, a will does nothing at all. Two separate documents cover that period: a power of attorney for property, which lets someone manage banking, bills, and your home, and a power of attorney for personal care, which lets someone make medical and living decisions. Without them, your family may have to apply to court to be appointed your guardian, which is slow, expensive, and public, at exactly the moment they are least able to face it.
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