Wills and Estates
A thoughtful estate plan makes sure the right people can step in, the right decisions are documented, and your wishes are clear if something happens to you. We prepare Wills and powers of attorney for individuals, couples, families, and business owners across Ontario, with practical advice and a straightforward process from start to finish.
We help you put a clear legal plan in place for your assets, your family, and your future, including your Will, Powers of Attorney for Property and Personal Care, and planning around business interests, real estate, beneficiaries, and the people who depend on you.
Without a plan, some of the most personal decisions in your life may be left to default legal rules or to others at a difficult time. A Will lets you decide how your estate is distributed and who administers it, while powers of attorney let you choose who makes financial or personal-care decisions if you can’t. These documents are relatively simple compared to the cost, uncertainty, and complications they help prevent.
A clear plan for who receives your estate, who handles it, and how your assets should be managed and distributed.
Choose who can manage your finances, property, and other financial affairs if you become unable to do so yourself.
Choose who can make personal-care decisions for you, including health care and living arrangements, if you become incapable.
If you own shares in a private company, a second Will can keep those shares out of court and reduce the probate tax on your estate. We’ll tell you whether it makes sense for you, and prepare both Wills so they work together.
Your decisions
Your Will sets out who should inherit your assets, in what proportions, and what should happen if one of your intended beneficiaries dies before you.
Without a valid Will, Ontario’s intestacy rules determine who inherits. That result may be very different from what you would have chosen, particularly for common-law couples, since a common-law spouse does not automatically inherit under Ontario’s intestacy rules.
Your executor, legally known in Ontario as your estate trustee, is the person responsible for carrying out your Will, dealing with your assets and debts, and administering your estate.
Choosing the right person, and naming a backup, can make an enormous difference to how smoothly things are handled.
If you have minor children, your Will is an important place to record who you would want to care for them if you and the other parent were no longer there.
It can also provide for how and when the assets you leave to your children are held and distributed, rather than simply leaving a large inheritance to them at a young age.
A Continuing Power of Attorney for Property lets you appoint someone you trust to deal with financial matters on your behalf, which can include paying bills, managing investments, collecting money owed to you, and dealing with property.
Without one, your spouse or family does not automatically have authority to take over your financial affairs if you become incapable, and a court or guardianship process may become necessary.
A Power of Attorney for Personal Care lets you choose who can make certain personal-care decisions for you if you become mentally incapable of making them yourself, including decisions involving health care, shelter, nutrition, hygiene, clothing, and safety.
Putting that decision in writing can spare the people closest to you from uncertainty about who should be speaking for you.
If you own a corporation or a share in a business, your estate plan has to deal with it. Your shares, any shareholders’ agreement, your co-owners, who holds signing authority, and how the business carries on without you all shape how the plan should be built, as do the tax and probate consequences of owning it.
For many Ontario business owners, a second Will dealing only with the business is worth looking at as well.
We start with the basics: your family, relationships, children, property, investments, business interests, existing documents, and the people you may want involved in your plan.
We help you work through your executor, beneficiaries, guardianship wishes, powers of attorney, and any family or financial circumstances that need special attention.
A plain-language engagement letter setting out the documents we recommend, exactly what we’ll prepare, and the fixed fee, agreed before any work begins.
We prepare your documents around the decisions you have made and walk you through how they work, what each provision means, and anything you should know before signing.
Once everything reflects your wishes, we guide you through proper execution of the documents and what to do with them afterwards, so the plan is ready if it is ever needed.
If you want a say in who receives your estate and who is responsible for administering it, yes. Without a valid Will, Ontario law determines how your estate is distributed rather than leaving that decision entirely to you. A Will becomes particularly important when you have children, a common-law partner, property, business interests, or wishes that do not fit the default rules.
Dying without a valid Will is known as dying “intestate.” Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act then determines who is entitled to inherit your estate. The result depends on your family circumstances and may not match what you would have chosen.
They apply at different times. Your Will deals with your estate after you die. A Power of Attorney gives another person authority to make certain decisions for you during your lifetime. Powers of attorney end when you die.
Yes. They do different jobs. A Continuing Power of Attorney for Property deals with financial matters. A Power of Attorney for Personal Care deals with decisions involving areas such as health care, shelter, nutrition, hygiene, clothing, and safety if you become incapable of making those decisions yourself.
Not necessarily. In particular, your spouse does not automatically gain authority over your financial affairs simply because you are married. Without a Power of Attorney for Property, additional legal steps, potentially including guardianship proceedings, may be necessary.
Not automatically under Ontario’s intestacy rules. A common-law spouse does not inherit from an intestate estate under the Succession Law Reform Act simply by virtue of being your common-law partner, which makes having a proper estate plan especially important for unmarried couples.
Ontario law does not require you to hire a lawyer to make a Will. The bigger question is whether the document properly deals with your circumstances and is executed in a way that makes it legally effective.
Templates also cannot identify issues you did not know to look for, such as how an asset is owned, the effect of a beneficiary designation, obligations under another agreement, business ownership, family circumstances, or whether the different parts of your plan work together.
“Probate” commonly refers to the court process through which an estate trustee obtains an estate certificate confirming their authority to administer an estate. Not every asset necessarily requires probate, and how assets are owned can affect what falls into an estate. Where an Ontario estate certificate is required, Estate Administration Tax may also be payable. For applications made under the current Ontario rules, no tax is payable on the first $50,000 of estate value, and the tax is $15 per $1,000, or part of $1,000, above that amount. Probate planning should be done carefully, however: avoiding probate should not come at the expense of creating ownership, tax, family, or control problems elsewhere.
It can. Shares in a private corporation, shareholder agreements, business partners, signing authority, succession plans, and the structure of the company can all affect what should happen if you die or become incapable. Some Ontario business owners may also benefit from using separate Wills for different categories of assets. We look at the business alongside the personal estate plan rather than treating it as just another line on an asset list.
There is no universal expiry date. You should revisit your estate plan when your life changes materially, for example after a marriage, separation or divorce, the birth of a child, a major change in assets, a move to another jurisdiction, starting or selling a business, or when one of the people named in your documents is no longer the right person. Even without a major event, it is worth periodically checking that the people, assets, and decisions reflected in your documents still match your life.
Been meaning to get your Will done? You don’t need to have every decision made before you start. Align Counsel walks you through what matters, explains your options in plain language, and puts the right documents in place for you and the people you care about. The first conversation is on us.
Book a free consultationThe information above is general in nature and is not legal advice. Every situation and transaction is different, and advice tailored to your specific circumstances is required to address your particular needs. If you have questions, contact Align Counsel at [email protected].