Do You Need a Lawyer for Your Will in Ontario?
If you're reading this, you've probably already decided you need a will. That puts you ahead of the roughly half of Canadian adults who don't have one at all. The question now is how to get it done, and specifically whether you need to pay a lawyer to do it.
The honest answer is: not always, but more often than you'd think. And the consequences of getting it wrong are uniquely unforgiving, because you won't be around to fix it.
What a Valid Will Actually Requires in Ontario
Ontario law sets a surprisingly low bar for what makes a will technically valid. Under the Succession Law Reform Act, a formal will needs to be in writing, signed by you at the end, and witnessed by two people who aren't beneficiaries (and whose spouses aren't beneficiaries). That's it for the formalities.
There's also something called a holograph will, which is even simpler: entirely handwritten by you, signed by you, no witnesses needed. These are legally valid in Ontario. After learning about them in law school, I used a holograph will for a time, personally, due to the simplicity. But that was also an extremely simple situation - I had never, at that point, been married and was not in a relationship, as a student I did not have much in the way of property, and I was in my 20s, with death being a far away, abstract concern.
So on paper, you don't need a lawyer. You never have. You can write your will on a napkin and it can be legally binding. The question isn't whether you can do it yourself. It's whether doing it yourself will actually accomplish what you need it to.
The DIY Options
There's no shortage of ways to make a will without a lawyer. Will kits from Staples or the bookstore have been around for decades. Online platforms like Willful, LegalWills, and others will walk you through a questionnaire and generate documents for somewhere between $50 and $300. Some of these services are genuinely well-designed.
I'm not going to tell you these are all scams or that they never work. For some people, in some situations, they produce a perfectly functional will and I'd be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise.
But here's what I see in practice: the problems with DIY wills almost never show up when you make them. They show up after you die, when your family is grieving and someone has to figure out what you actually meant, or whether the document is even valid. And by that point, the person who made the decisions is the one person who can't explain them or clarify what they really meant.
Where Things Go Wrong
The most common issue with DIY wills isn't that they're dramatically defective. It's that they're subtly incomplete.
Witnessing errors. This is the simplest thing to get right and still the most common failure point. A will needs two witnesses. Neither witness (nor their spouse) can be a beneficiary under the will. There have been DIY wills where a spouse witnessed, where a beneficiary witnessed, where only one person witnessed, or where the witnesses signed in the wrong place. Any of these can make the will invalid. Ontario courts can sometimes save an improperly witnessed will under the court's "substantial compliance" power, but that means your family is now hiring a lawyer and going to court to validate a document that was supposed to save them the trouble of involving a lawyer in the first place.
Ambiguous language. Legal drafting is precise for a reason. A will that says "I leave my house to my children equally" seems clear, but what does "equally" mean? Do they each own half and have to agree on what to do with it? Does one of them get to live there? What if one child wants to sell and the other doesn't? A properly drafted will addresses these questions. A will kit usually doesn't, because it can't anticipate your specific situation.
Failing to account for what happens next. Your will names an estate trustee (what most people call an "executor"). But what if that person can't or won't act? Your will leaves everything to your spouse. But what if your spouse dies first, or at the same time? These contingencies aren't exotic edge cases. They're the basic architecture of a will that actually works. Most will kits include some of this. Some don't. And even the ones that do often leave gaps that the person filling it out wouldn't know to look for.
Accidentally revoking a previous will (or not). Making a new will generally revokes the old one, but only if it says so, or if it's fundamentally inconsistent with the previous version. If you've done a will kit after having a lawyer draft a will years ago, or vice versa, the interaction between the two documents can create real problems. Marriage also automatically revokes a will in Ontario, which catches a surprising number of people off guard.
The Piece Most People Forget Entirely: Powers of Attorney
This is where the DIY approach fails most consistently. Most people come to the process thinking about what happens after they die. But estate planning also needs to address what happens if you're alive but can't manage your own affairs.
In Ontario, that means two additional documents: a Power of Attorney for Property and a Power of Attorney for Personal Care. The first authorizes someone to manage your finances and property if you can't. The second authorizes someone to make healthcare and personal decisions on your behalf.
These are not optional extras. If you become incapacitated without powers of attorney in place, your family may need to apply to the court to be appointed as your guardian. That process is slow, expensive, and stressful at exactly the time your family can least afford any of those things.
Some online will platforms do include powers of attorney. But the documents themselves require careful thought about who you're appointing, what restrictions or guidance you want to include, and how the documents interact with your will. A questionnaire can generate the paperwork. It can't have a conversation with you about whether your first choice of attorney is actually the right person for the job, or what happens if your chosen attorney lives three provinces away, or whether you want to include specific instructions about medical treatment.
When You Might Be Fine Without a Lawyer
I want to be straightforward about this: if your situation is genuinely simple, a well-designed online will platform can produce a document that does what you need.
"Genuinely simple" means something like: you're in a stable marriage or long-term relationship, you want everything to go to your partner and then to your children, you don't own a business, your assets are straightforward (a house, some savings, maybe an RRSP), and there are no complicated family dynamics at play. No blended families, no estranged relatives you want to specifically exclude, no dependants with disabilities, no significant charitable intentions, no cross-border assets.
If that's you, and the platform you're using includes properly drafted powers of attorney, and you follow the witnessing and signing requirements to the letter, you'll probably end up with documents that work.
The problem is that most people's situations aren't quite as simple as they think, and they don't always know what they don't know.
When You Definitely Need a Lawyer
Some situations almost always call for professional help.
You own a business or have an interest in one. Business succession planning is complex, and a will that doesn't account for shareholder agreements, partnership interests, or corporate structures can create serious problems for both your family and your business partners.
You have a blended family. Children from previous relationships, stepchildren, a new spouse and an ex-spouse who all have reasonable expectations about your estate: this is exactly the kind of situation where ambiguity in a will leads to litigation. And estates litigation is expensive, slow, and deeply damaging to family relationships.
You have a dependant with a disability. There are specific trust structures (like Henson trusts) designed to provide for a disabled beneficiary without disqualifying them from government benefits. Getting this wrong can cost your child their ODSP eligibility. A will kit cannot do this.
You have significant assets or a complex financial picture. Multiple properties, investments, significant RRSP or RRIF balances, assets in other jurisdictions, or any situation where tax planning matters.
You want to disinherit someone. Ontario law allows you to leave your estate however you choose, with some important exceptions. If you have dependants (a spouse, children, or anyone you were supporting financially), they may be able to bring a claim against your estate for support regardless of what your will says. If you're planning to exclude someone who might have a claim, you need legal advice about how to do that in a way that's most likely to hold up.
You've been through a separation or divorce, or you're in the process of one. The interaction between family law and estate law in Ontario is complicated, and the consequences of getting it wrong are severe.
What Working with a Lawyer Actually Looks Like
I think part of the reason people hesitate to see a lawyer about a will is that they imagine it's going to be a long, complicated, expensive process. In most cases, it isn't.
For a standard will and powers of attorney package, you're typically looking at one consultation where we talk through your situation, your family, your assets, and what you want to happen. I do my drafting based on that conversation. You review the drafts, we make any changes, and then we arrange a signing appointment. Start to finish, it's usually a few weeks, and most of that time is just scheduling. If you have specific needs, urgency, or just want to go particularly fast, I can usually accommodate this, and potentially go from start to finish in a matter of days.
The cost varies by lawyer and by complexity, but for a straightforward will and powers of attorney, you're generally looking at a flat fee that reflects a fraction of what your estate would spend sorting out a defective DIY will after the fact. You can see my current posted fees here.
What I'd Recommend
If you've been putting off making a will because you're not sure whether you need a lawyer or because you think it's going to be a big production, let me put it this way: the process is almost certainly simpler than you're imagining, and the cost of doing it right is almost certainly less than the cost of doing it wrong.
If your situation is truly straightforward and you're comfortable with the DIY route, do it. A DIY will that exists is usually better than a perfect will that you never get around to making. But be honest with yourself about whether your situation is actually simple, and pay very close attention to the execution requirements. Get the witnessing right. Include powers of attorney. And if you have any doubt at all about whether your situation has complexities you might be missing, the consultation is worth your time.
If you're starting to think it might make sense to talk to someone, I offer a free consultation where we can look at your situation and figure out what you actually need. You can book that at https://andromeda.law/about/estate-consultation , or reach out by email at charlotte@andromeda.law.
