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  • Last Will and Testament Worksheet

  • Please complete the following worksheet prior to your appointment with Mr. Holowatsch. The information you provide will be used by the lawyer when drafting your last will and testament.

    A copy of your submission will be provided by e-mail following your submission. If you are completing this form online, you can also save your progress and return to this form at a later time.

  • Last Will and Testament Worksheet - Overview

    Last Will and Testament Worksheet - Overview

  • Why Make a Will?

    By making a Will, you can:

    • Choose your own beneficiaries based on their existing and potential financial needs as well as their relationship to you.
    • You can establish trusts and determine at what age your children or beneficiaries will receive their inheritance. Family heirlooms and items of sentimental value can be given in a Will to specific named beneficiaries avoiding conflict among family members.
    • You can benefit good causes by leaving a legacy to a charity that has always been important to you. Wills can be used to provide for complex family arrangements, such as including children from previous marriages or giving a second spouse the right to occupy the family home, while protecting the capital of the estate for children from an earlier marriage.
    • Making a Will can help ensure that the wealth you worked hard to accumulate is kept in the family.
    • A Will may also provide opportunities to save or defer tax when you die and allow your beneficiaries to save tax on their inheritances.

    Updating you Will

    Once made, a Will should be regularly reviewed and revised where circumstances have changed, including:

    • a change in the status of dependants such as a child attaining 18 years or financial independence or an aging parent becoming a dependant.
    • a change in marital status. A marriage revokes an existing Will. Separation does not. If a separation from a spouse or commencement of a “common-law” relationship occurs, it is necessary to have a Will to ensure that your wishes are carried out regarding the entitlement of your spouse or partner, to share in your estate after your death.
    • a change in residency and/or location of assets which may require that a Will be made in international form or that multiple Wills be made in different jurisdictions.
    • a change in one of the assets specifically gifted in the Will.
    • a significant change in your personal balance sheet, such as the acquisition or disposition of a business or an inheritance.
    • changes in the Income Tax Act wich may impact your beneficiaries.
  • Some Estate Planning Strategies

    Some Estate Planning Strategies

    Multiple Wills May Reduce Probate Fees - If you have shares or loans receivable in private corporations or other assets that can be transferred without “probate”, multiple Wills could reduce the Estate Administration Tax (“probate fees”) payable in your estate.

  • “Probating” a Will is the process of having the Court confirm the validity of the Will and the appointment of the person(s) entitled to administer the estate. Probate fees are payable when the Will is submitted to the court for probate. The fee is $250 on the first $50,000 of estate assets and $15 per $1,000 of estate assets thereafter. “Probate” (now called a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will) is not required in every estate.

    Whether or not probate is required depends on the nature of the assets, how the assets are held (i.e. joint tenants or otherwise), and the requirements for the transfer of those assets. Historically, the value of all assets was required to be included in the probate application except for those assets passing outside the Will, i.e. to a joint owner on survivorship or to a named beneficiary on an insurance policy. Real estate located outside Ontario was also not required to be shown in the probate application.


    Some assets disposed of under a Will do not require probate to transfer them to the beneficiaries.

    Examples of this are shares and loans receivable in private corporations and most personal effects. The assets that do require probate can be dealt with in one Will and probate fees paid only on the value of those assets. The assets not normally requiring probate can be dealt with in a separate Will. As probate of this separate Will is not normally required, probate fees can usually be avoided on the assets dealt with under that Will.


    As a result of the substantial probate fee savings, the use of multiple Wills has become increasingly popular and should be considered whenever you own shares of a private corporation. For example, if the value of your shares and/or loans receivables is $1,000,000 at the time of your death, your estate could save $15,000 in probate fees by using a secondary Will to govern the shares of the private corporation.


    It should be noted however, that there is no guarantee that using Multiple Wills will ultimately save probate fees. There are some circumstances where the ‘non-probatable Will’ may still need to be probated, including cases where claims are made against the estate which exceed the value of the ‘probatable estate’.

    For this reason, careful planning should be undertaken. Whether or not Multiple Wills should be used will depend on the nature of the assets, the value of assets not requiring probate and corresponding anticipated savings in probate fees. In the right circumstances, Multiple Wills could significantly reduce probate fees otherwise payable by your estate.

  • Last Will and Testament Planning Questionnaire

    Last Will and Testament Planning Questionnaire

    • Part 1: Background Information 
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    • Part 2: Asset Information 
    • Part 2: Asset Information

      Part 2: Asset Information

    • Section One - Real Estate

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    • Section Two - Bank Accounts, Registered Investments, Pensions and Life Insurance

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    • Section Three - Other Assets

    • Part 3: Estate Administration & Distribution 
    • Part 3: Estate Administration & Distribution

      Part 3: Estate Administration & Distribution

    • Executors/Trustees:

      An important decision to be made is the choice of one or more persons, and possibly a trust company, to act as executors. Essentially, executors are responsible for the administration of trusts set out in your will. They are responsible for arranging the burial, proving the will, collecting the estate, satisfying bequests and, as necessary, converting the estate into money to be used to pay debts and legacies. Finally, the executors distribute the residue of the estate to the persons entitled to it. 

       Consider the following: who will administer your estate and distribute your assets and/or manage trusts for your beneficiaries in your will when you pass away? 

       It is perfectly acceptable to name a residual beneficiary as executor, and often advantagous to do so, because he or she has a direct interest in administering the estate in a cost-effective and expeditious manner. It is also common to name the same person as executor and as guardian of minor children. 

       

    • Alternate Executors/Trustees:

      In the event that your appointed Executor(s)/Trustee(s) cannot act for any reason, it is recommended that you appoint at least one (1) alternate. This is especially important if you have chosen one Executor/Trustee above. 

    • Compensation for Executor(s)/Trustee(s):

      If the Will is silent regarding compensation, an executor or trustee may claim "fair and reasonable allowance for the care, pains and trouble, and the time expended in and about the estate" under Section 61 of the Trustee Act.

      If all the beneficiaries of the estate or of the particular trust in question are of the age of majority and mentally capable (and there are no potential or contingent unborn or unascertained beneficiaries), the beneficiaries may agree to negotiate the claim. Otherwise, the executor or trustee must make a claim for compensation in the context of a court application to pass his or her accounts. In the absence of a Compensation Clause in the Will, a court usually allows compensation to an executor/trustee at the following rate: 2.5% of all receipts and 2.5% of all disbursements. 

      Additionally, Executor's Compensation is income from an office, and subject to income tax in the executor's hands. It is sometimes possible to avoid taxation of compensation by leaving a legacy to the executor (which is not tied to him or her acting as executor) and asking him or her privately to not take compensation. 

    • Funeral & Burial Instructions 

    • Legal Background

      At common law the duty of disposing of the body falls on the Estate Trustee and he has the right to determine the place and manner of burial. Where the deceased has left directions as to the disposal of his remains, these directions are not legally binding on the Estate Trustree although the wishes of the deceased should be carried out as much as possible.

      Please Note: Funeral instructions are not legally binding as a person has no property right in his or her own dead body. Instead, the task of disposing of the body falls to the executors who may make any arrangements and spend any amount of money that is appropriate given the testator’s means and station in life. However, in most cases, the executors will be happy to follow the testator’s wishes.

      Organ and Tissue Donation

      A written and signed direction with respect to organ donation is legally binding: Trillium Gift of Life Network Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.20, s. 4(1)(a) and (3). However, as the Will may be read too late to be of use, you should also notify your family members of your wishes and to register your wish to donate with Ministry of Health (which can be done online or in person at Service Ontario).

      Funeral Instructions

      Although it is extremely helpful for your executors and your family to list a preferred church, hymns, flowers, etc., you should refrain from putting too much detail into the Will itself. Instead, the you may write a letter to your executors, or pre-plan your funeral with a funeral home and advise your executors and immediate family members orally of your important wishes.

    • Beneficiaries  

    • Beneficiary Designations for Registered Plans (RRSPs, RESPs, RRIFs)

      Although a beneficiary designation can be made directly on the form provided by the financial institution, there is seldom room on the form to name an alternate beneficiary or to set up any trusts. Unless this matter is otherwise dealt with in the Will, if one named beneficiary predeceases you, the proceeds will be redistributed among the other named beneficiaries, or if all the named beneficiaries have died, the proceeds will fall into the your estate, where they will become subject to Estate Administration Tax. 

      Please note that beneficiary designations made in the Will affect only those registered plans which exist at the time the Will is signed. If a new plan is opened subsequent to the date of execution of your Will, the Will must be republished in order for the beneficiary designation to apply to it.  

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    • Instructions regarding Real Estate 

    • Real Estate:

      Do you wish to leave your home and/or any other real estate that you own to a particular person or person(s)? You may wish to give someone the right to use a property during their lifetime (or for a set period of time) with a provision stating that when they pass away, the real estate is to go to someone else.

      This type of arrangement is a trust and requires you to consider matters such as who will pay ongoing expenses related to that property (i.e. insurance, maintenance costs, municipal taxes, etc.). Keep in mind that unless there is a direction to the contrary in the Will, a beneficiary of real property will be liable for payment of a mortgage secured against the property (SLRA s. 32). 

      Unless there is a direction contrary in the Will, all debts, taxes and expenses other than a mortgage on specificallly devised real estate will be paid out of the residue of the estate (Estate Administration Act, s. 5). 

    • Probate Fees:
      Probate fees in Ontario are significant (0.5% on the first $50,000.00 and 1.5% on the excess over $50,000.00) and steps should be taken to avoid passing assets through the estate. Accordingly, steps should be taken to ensure that property is held with the beneficiary(ies) jointly with the right of survivorship. The same should be arranged by way of beneficiary designations with respect to registred savings plans and plans of life insurance.  

      When joint ownership is arranged, the value of joint assets transferred on death by the right of survivorship or beneficiary designation is not included in the value of the estate for probate tax purposes. 

      To ensure joint ownership over specific assets such as real estate, please ask the lawyer for guidance in this area.*

    • Distribution of Residue of Estate 

    • Residue of Estate:

      Once all of the gifts of specific assets or cash amounts have been distributed and all taxes and debts have been paid, the remaining assets and/or money left in your estate is called the Residue. Before deciding on how you wish to deal with the residue, it is important to first ascertain the value of the residue. Your decisions about whether to leave the residue, for example, outright to a particular person, or in trust for a period of time, may differ depending on the value of the residue. 

      There are two (2) typical options for deciding how distributions of the residue should take place. First, you may give the residue outright to one or more individuals (each such individual a "Beneficiary"). This means that if any beneficiary survives you, your assets are given to them to deal with as they see fit. In other words, they will have complete control over your assets. 

      Alternatively, you may establish a trust whereby the Trustees of your estate hold the assets for the benefit of one or more named beneficiaries for a stipulated period of time. The Trustees will manage the property in accordance with the terms and conditions that you establish in your Will. Typically, the Trustees then invest the trust into a fund that generates income. You may set out how earned income is to be paid, and how the capital (or in other words, the remainder of the property in the Trust) is to be distributed. 

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    • Part 4: Review and Submit 
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    • Should be Empty: