For those of you (you know who you are) who did your wills so long ago that now you can no longer remember where the wills are or which lawyer drafted them or even what the will says, the answer is that you must get new wills now. If your will can't be found, in effect you have no will.
For the rest of us, a will should be reviewed after important life events take place. Obviously this looks a bit different for everyone in terms of how many years are involved, but the life events are shared by all. They are:
- you get married or divorced
- you are widowed
- you have your first child
- your children all reach the age of majority
- you retire
- you own a business and are thinking about retiring or selling
- you buy a vacation property in another country
- one of your children has an addiction, bankruptcy or other problem that interferes with handling money
- you have become estranged from one of your children
- you want to set up charitable giving through your will
- your spouse is experiencing early signs of dementia
- your financial status has changed, for better or worse, since you made your will
- you have moved to a different province or country
- the person named as executor has died, lost mental capacity or moved far away
- one or more of the beneficiaries has died
- you want to include additional beneficiaries or remove someone who is currently named as a beneficiary
- you want to hold some beneficiaries' shares in trust
Great post! I love your blog. You have useful lists of things to do when it comes to will. Very informative! Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteHow often can I legally change my will in Ontario? Do I or my executors have to prove or exlain if they were done closely in terms of date?
ReplyDeleteYou can change your will as often as you like, as long as you have mental capacity to do so. I don't really understand the second part of your question.
DeleteLynne
Even a month after the first one? Thanks so much for your help!
DeleteYes, you can change your will a month later. However, think about the impression you're leaving if you change your mind constantly. Since I don't know the details of what kinds of changes you want to make, I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with multiple changes. If you suddenly make a will that is very different from one you had recently made, think about whether it's an odd or unexpected change (such as including a beneficiary who'd never been included before). Perhaps you should talk to a lawyer about how to support unusual changes to your will by a) the lawyer's notes and b) some commentary in your will.
DeleteLynne
I'll be using a different lawyer, and I have the original will (the lawyer only has a copy). I will destroy it when the newer will is signed. The newer one will be more fair to my spouse and will include my spouse in our house title. So it is an improvement which should resolve potential conflict later on. Agreed? Thank you so much.
DeleteMust updates be done in my Lawyer's office, or is there a process for updating minor changes without involving my Lawyer?
ReplyDeleteUpdates don't have to be done in the lawyer's office. You can do them yourself if you feel that it's something you can deal with on your own. Don't write on your original will or otherwise make any changes to that actual document. Since you are talking about a minor change and not a whole new will, you should prepare a codicil that confirms your will and clarifies which bit is to be amended. Remember that codicils have the same witnessing requirements as wills do.
DeleteLynne
Hi Lynne, Do we need to update our will if we moved city? We are still in Ontario but just moved from Toronto to Halton. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNo, there is no need to update if that is the only change.
DeleteLynne
Thank you Lynne, for this excellent resource!
ReplyDeleteMy partner of 4 years and I have recently bought a life lease seniors condo,
sharing all expenses. We each have detailed wills, but now need to update
them. Our individual estates are willed to our own children. I have a much
larger Estate.
Here is what I am planning to add to my will:
"Codicil to the last will and testament of _______________ .
I, ____________________residing in _____________, being of sound mind,
declare that this Codicil to last Will and Testament of _________________is
effective on this date and shall hereby amend my Last Will and Testament
dated ___________as follows:
ITEM 1
3.4 Residence shall be amended to ____________________
3.4.1 If my partner ___________________is living on the date
of my death, my Estate Trustee shall hold my ½ of our life lease, which I
am using as my principal residence at the date if my death (currently
_______________________________as a home for my partner
___________________________for up to 2 years from the date of my death.
3.4.2 All condo life lease fees shall be paid by my partner,
________________until the life lease is sold, at which time my estate is to
receive ½ of the total price of the sale of our jointly owned life lease
condo."
Or would you suggest I see my lawyer?