Without a will, many Canadians leaving big decisions to state

Are you certain what will happen to your estate after you die?

It turns out many Canadians are not.

Erin Bury is founder of Willful, a company that makes it easy for people to write a will. On Tuesday, she told 980 CJME’s Greg Morgan Morning Show that 57 per cent of Canadians don’t have one. As well, one in 10 Canadians have a will that’s not up to date.

“If you’re 22 years old and you don’t have children or you don’t have any significant assets, you have 500 bucks in your bank account, you probably don’t need a will,” Bury said.

“As soon as you get married and as soon as you have any sort of sizeable asset like investments or a home, you absolutely need one. The reason is because if you pass away without a will, the government gets to decide how your assets are distributed.”

It’s not just about matters of monetary value. Without a will, Bury said the state will decide who gets custody of minor-age children.

“You need to assign somebody to take care of that child after you pass away and you don’t want to leave that up to the courts, because they might put your husband’s delinquent brother or something like that in charge of your kid,” she said.

Bury said a will is a lot simpler to write than people think. It just needs to be printed, signed by the testator (the person making his/her will) and two other witnesses who will not benefit from the estate.