5. Get legal help
Question & Answer
What is a will and what happens if I die without making one?It's possible to make a will yourself. But it's usually a good idea to talk to an estates lawyer before making one. A lawyer can make sure you follow all the rules for making a will and help you make an that meets your needs.
For example, a lawyer can tell you how to reduce fees, advise you on the dependants you should include in your will, and explain what happens if a beneficiary dies before you do.
If you have a large or complicated , it might be a good idea to talk to a financial advisor and an estates lawyer.
If you have a simple estate, there are services such as Axess Law, that offer legal services at lower rates.
If your income is low, you can also call your local community legal clinic to see if they help with wills.
CLEO tools to help you
This CLEO tipsheet tells you what information to gather before making a will.
You can use CLEO’S Guided Pathway to make a simple will.
These places offer specific communities help with making a will:
- Advocacy North for Elders and Seniors may help elders or older adults with low incomes living in Northern Ontario.
- Pro Bono Students Canada’s Wills Clinic helps people with low incomes in York Region.
- Queen’s University Elder Law Clinic helps older adults with low incomes who live in Kingston and in surrounding communities.
- The 519 Legal Clinic helps + people.
Estate plan
Making a will is only one part of an estate plan. Estate planning also includes things like:
- Reducing probate fees, for example, by making beneficiary designations and holding property jointly.
- Having a power of attorney for property so that someone can make decisions about your property if you become .
- Having a power of attorney for personal care so that someone can make personal care decisions if you become mentally incapable.
- Creating trusts to put conditions on how and when certain are distributed when you die.
