A will is a legal document that sets out your wishes as to how you want your estate to be divided once you die. You’re not legally required to prepare a will, but be advised, that without a legal will your loved ones are going to have to deal with deciding how you would have wanted your estate to be divided. Even worse, the law may decide for them and in situations where there is no legal will, the law in the province or territory where you live can decide how to divide your estate. A consequence of this may be that a common law spouse for example, gets nothing.
It is a good idea to seek professional legal help when preparing a will. This will ensure that the will that is prepared is in accordance with your wishes, and is signed and witnessed properly. Death is a topic most people don’t want to think about, however, by ensuring that you have a will that expresses your current wishes, you can be saving your loved ones from having to incur difficulty and cost to deal with legal or court issues surrounding your estate, when you are no longer there.
Once you have a will in place, you should update your will any time there is a significant change in your life, for example, marriage, divorce or having children.
