A Young Person's Guide to Writing a Will in Canada

A 26-year-old graphic designer in Halifax dies in a car accident on a Friday evening. She owns a one-bedroom condo bought eighteen months earlier with $42,000 of her own savings, has a TFSA worth $11,000 with her mother named as beneficiary, an RRSP worth $7,200 with no designation filed, a four-year-old border collie, and a long-term partner she had not married. They had been living together for two and a half years. She had never written a will.

Three things happen in the next six months that her partner does not see coming. The condo (in her name only) passes through probate to her parents under Nova Scotia's intestacy rules; her partner has no share. The RRSP, with no beneficiary designation, collapses into the estate, becomes taxable on the terminal return at her marginal rate, and pays out alongside the condo. The border collie has no formal arrangement and ends up at her parents' house in New Glasgow rather than with her partner, who had walked the dog every morning for two years.

None of those outcomes were what she wanted, but none of them were illegal either. They were the defaults that take over when a young Canadian dies without writing the document — a will — that overrides them.

This guide is about why that document matters earlier than most twenty-somethings think, how short it can actually be, and what specifically tends to go wrong when young Canadians put it off.

You can probably write one already #

Most Canadians overestimate the age at which they can legally make a will. British Columbia is the outlier in the other direction — under section 36 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, a person aged 16 or older can make a valid will.^[1]

Three exceptions apply across provinces for minors who would otherwise be too young. Under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act section 8, for example, a person under 18 can make a valid will if they are contemplating a marriage and the will states that, are a member of the Canadian Forces regular component or on active service, or are a sailor at sea or on a voyage.^[2] Most other common-law provinces have parallel provisions in their wills statutes.

If you're past those thresholds — and most readers of this guide are — you can write the will today. The age question is rarely the obstacle.

Why young Canadians put it off (and why each reason gives way) #

Survey data on wills in Canada consistently shows that the youngest age cohorts have the lowest will rates. The reasons aren't mysterious — they're just usually wrong on the facts.

"I don't have anything yet." A first-job RRSP plus a vehicle plus a security deposit plus 200,000 photos on a phone is already an estate. So is a $4,000 emergency fund. The threshold for "anything" is low and most young Canadians have already crossed it.

"My family will figure it out." They will figure something out — within the constraints of provincial intestacy law, which doesn't accommodate common-law partners in every province, doesn't recognize chosen family, and gives a default executor (usually a parent or sibling) a job they may not want. The figured-out version frequently isn't what the deceased would have chosen.

"It's too expensive to do properly." This was a stronger objection in 2010. In 2026, online will services in Canada produce a legally valid will for $50–200, and DIY-assisted services produce a province-compliant document with guided drafting at similar cost. Wills are no longer gated behind a $500–1,500 lawyer-drafted bill, although a lawyer remains the right call if your situation is complex (blended family, business ownership, special-needs dependant, significant offshore assets).

"I'm uncomfortable thinking about it." Reasonable. The discomfort is what the will-writing process is for. Once it's done it goes in a drawer and the discomfort goes with it. The will writers we hear from afterward describe the feeling as overwhelmingly one of relief, not morbidity.

"I'll do it when I get older." Statistically, most Canadians don't get around to it until well into middle age. A 2018 Angus Reid Institute survey found only 15% of Canadians aged 18–34 had an up-to-date will, compared with 29% of those 35–54 and 58% of those 55 and older.^[4] The decades in between 25 and 55 are exactly the period when intestacy outcomes tend to do the most damage — unmarried partners, young children, blended families, and asset compositions that look different than what the intestacy formulas assume.

What a young person's will usually contains #

A will at 25 is shorter than a will at 65. The structural pieces are:

Executor. The person who administers the estate — gathers assets, pays debts, files the terminal tax return, distributes what remains. Young people often name a parent or sibling. An alternate executor is also named in case the first cannot act. See our pillar on how to write a will in Canada for the executor role in detail.

Residue clause. Where the bulk of the estate goes. "I leave the residue of my estate to my partner Sarah Chen, but if Sarah does not survive me by 30 days, to my brother Liam Chen." That single sentence does most of the work. Without a residue clause, anything not specifically gifted falls into partial intestacy.

Guardian for children, if any. Young parents who have a will at all most often have it because of this clause. The guardian appointment is a recommendation to the court rather than an automatic conferral, but courts generally follow it unless there's a serious reason not to.

Specific gifts (optional). A camera to a friend, savings bonds to a niece, a specific bank account to a parent. Specific gifts are useful for items with sentimental weight but the residue clause is usually doing most of the financial work.

Funeral wishes (optional and rarely binding). A line that names a preferred funeral or interment style. Funeral providers generally treat the will as evidence of wishes rather than as a binding instruction, since the will is often read after the funeral has happened.

A standard young person's will runs two to three pages. The accompanying executor instructions and document inventory (where assets are, how to access them) often runs longer than the will itself, and lives outside the will so private information stays out of the public record.

Common-law partners — the single most expensive intestacy gap #

The single most damaging intestacy outcome for young Canadians is the common-law partner case, because the law varies dramatically between provinces and the consequences of being on the wrong side of the dividing line are large.

In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the three territories, common-law partners who meet provincial cohabitation thresholds (typically two years of conjugal cohabitation, or shorter if there is a child) have intestate inheritance rights similar to married spouses.^[5] In Alberta, the Wills and Succession Act extends spousal-like rights to "adult interdependent partners" who meet a similar threshold.^[3]

In Ontario, the rule is different and harsher — a common-law partner has no automatic intestate inheritance right.

The practical implication — if you live with a partner you haven't married, write a will. The will overrides the intestacy default everywhere in common-law Canada, regardless of how the province categorizes your relationship.

Digital assets, pets, and the categories twenty-somethings miss #

A young person's asset list usually looks different from a 65-year-old's. The same will template still works, but five categories deserve specific attention.

Digital assets. Photo libraries, cloud storage accounts, social-media profiles, gaming accounts with purchased content, cryptocurrency, domain names, online income (YouTube, Twitch, Substack). The will should authorize the executor to access these and dispose of them. See our companion piece on cryptocurrency in your will for the access-credentials problem specifically.

Pets. Pets are property under Canadian law and pass like other property under the will. You can name a person to take the pet and optionally leave a sum of money to support care. Some Canadians use a pet trust where the estate is large enough and the pet has significant ongoing costs; see our pet trusts article for the structure.

RRSPs and TFSAs. Beneficiary designations override the will. A young person who opened a TFSA at a first job and named their mother as beneficiary, then later moved in with a partner, may not have updated the designation — and the bank pays the named beneficiary, not the partner the new will leaves the rest of the estate to. Refresh designations whenever relationships change.

Student loans. Federal student loans are forgiven on death in most cases, but provincial portions vary. Private loans (lines of credit used for school) are estate liabilities — they get paid out of the estate before the residue is distributed.

Cars and recreational vehicles. Often the largest single tangible asset a young person owns. The will should make a clear decision about what happens to them. If the vehicle is co-owned with a parent or partner, ownership structure determines what survives the death; check the registration before assuming anything.

Where to actually keep it #

A signed will that nobody can find is operationally similar to no will at all. Three practical patterns work for young Canadians:

• A fireproof safe at home, with the location and combination shared with the executor.
• The lawyer's safe, if a lawyer drafted the will.
• A provincial wills registry, where one exists (British Columbia and a few others maintain a Wills Notice system that records the will's location, though not its contents).

A scan or photo of the will is not a substitute for the original. Most provinces require the original wet-ink signed document for probate. Tell the executor where the original is; don't make them search.

The update cadence young people consistently underestimate #

A will written at 25 is not a permanent installation. The events that trigger a review:

• Marriage (revokes a will in some provinces unless made in contemplation of marriage)
• Separation or divorce (voids gifts to a former spouse under many provincial statutes, but the rules vary)
• Birth or adoption of a child
• Moving to a different province
• Death of a named beneficiary or executor
• A material change in assets — buying property, receiving an inheritance, starting a business
• Significant change in relationship status (a common-law partner becoming financially dependent on you)

In the absence of any of those, a once-every-three-to-five-years review is the common cadence. The review can be a five-minute reread followed by either "still correct" or a quick codicil; it doesn't have to be a full rewrite. Our marriage and your will and divorce and your will articles cover the two life events that most commonly create silent invalidations young people don't notice.

What we focus on at It's Simple Will #

The It's Simple Will questionnaire is built for the asset compositions and relationship structures that twenty- and thirty-something Canadians actually have. The Conductor walks you through the same structural decisions a lawyer would — executor, residue, guardian if applicable — but in plain English and with province-appropriate defaults baked in. The output is a legally valid will for the nine common-law provinces and three territories, plus a separate practical document the executor can use to locate everything.

If your situation is straightforward (single, partnered, simple assets), the questionnaire takes 20 to 40 minutes. If your situation is more complex — a blended family, a business, a special-needs dependant, foreign assets — start with the questionnaire and consider a lawyer review afterward. The cost of the questionnaire plus a one-hour lawyer review is generally well below the cost of a fully lawyer-drafted will, and you arrive at the lawyer with the document already structured.

Start at app.itssimplewill.ca. The first decision — who is the executor — is also the hardest. Our piece on how to choose an executor walks through the trade-offs.