Author: Supriya Chadha.

A will is a legal document that permits a person, the testator, to make decisions on how his estate will be managed and distributed after his death. If you want to include specific directions about how your estate is to be distributed after your death, you must have a Will in place. But if you don’t have a will in place, you can’t decide who will be inheriting your property and the intestacy laws will decide how your property is divided.

Almost everyone tries to postpone the drafting of his/her will. One of the many reasons for that could be we don’t want to be reminded that we are not immortal. But it is the most important document that we should prioritize to draft and get properly executed.

In Ontario the Succession Law Reform Act R.S.O. 1990, c.S.26 (“SLRA”) governs the intestacies i.e., when a person dies without having a will. If the person dies intestate, then estate, or a portion of the estate, will be distributed according to the Intestacy rules as provided under SLRA.

Where a person dies intestate in respect of property and is survived by spouse and not survived by issue, the spouse is entitled to the property absolutely.

If a person dies intestate in respect of property having a net value of not more than the preferential share (currently prescribed as the first $200,000.00) and is survived by a spouse and issue, the spouse is entitled to the property absolutely.

If the property has a net value of more than the preferential share and the deceased had both a spouse and issue, the spouse inherits the preferential share of $200,000.00 with the balance of the estate divided according to the number of children of the deceased.

If the deceased has no spouse and no children, then the property passes to deceased’s parents, brothers and sisters, or nieces and nephews (in that order) and thereafter, the property passes to the deceased’s “next of kin” which could expand across the globe to individuals even unknown to the deceased.

It is recommended that you seek a lawyer’s advice to have your Will properly drafted if you want to have control over who your beneficiaries are when you pass away.

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