How to Make a Will in Ontario (2026): Steps, Costs, and Rules

This article explains how to make a will in Ontario as of 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. The rules described come from the Succession Law Reform Act and related Ontario law. Your own situation may differ, and a lawyer can advise on it.

Knowing how to make a will in Ontario comes down to a handful of legal rules and one big choice: do it yourself or hire a lawyer. A will decides who gets your property, who manages your estate, and who looks after your minor children after you die. Without one, those decisions fall to a fixed government formula that may not match what you would have wanted.

A will is only half of a complete plan. The other half is a power of attorney in Ontario, which covers decisions about your money and health while you are still alive but unable to act. This guide covers the will side: what makes one valid, the steps, the cost, and what happens if you never make one. If you already know you want professional help, Olanur can match you with an Ontario wills lawyer for free, with no calls and no pressure.

How to make a will in Ontario: the quick answer

Making a will in Ontario means putting your wishes in writing and signing the document correctly. Here is the short version, unpacked fully below.

• You do not need a lawyer. A will kit or online service produces a valid will if you sign and witness it properly. A lawyer becomes worth it when your estate, family, or wishes are complicated.
• Two witnesses are required for a typed will. You sign in front of two witnesses who are present at the same time, and they sign too. Neither witness, nor their spouse, should be a beneficiary.
• A fully handwritten will needs no witnesses. Ontario recognizes a holograph will, written entirely in your own hand and signed, with no witnesses at all.
• Cost ranges widely. A template can be free, an online service runs roughly $50 to $200, and a lawyer-drafted will is typically $300 to $700 or more.
• No will means the government decides. If you die without a will, Ontario's intestacy rules split your estate by a set formula, and common-law partners are left out entirely.
• A will does not cover everything. Assets with a named beneficiary, like an RRSP or life insurance, and jointly owned property pass outside your will.

What makes a will legally valid in Ontario

A valid Ontario will has to meet the formal requirements in the Succession Law Reform Act. Get these right and the document holds up; get them wrong and it can be challenged or fail.

For a standard typed will, the law requires that you are at least 18 and of sound mind, that the will is in writing, and that you sign it at the end. The signing has to happen in front of two witnesses who are present at the same time, and both of them must then sign the will while you watch. The witnesses confirm that you signed, not what the will says, so they do not need to read it.

One rule trips people up constantly. A gift to a person who witnesses your will, or to that witness's spouse, is void under the Succession Law Reform Act, even though the will itself stays valid. The safe move is to use two neutral witnesses who inherit nothing, such as a neighbour or a coworker.

The types of wills Ontario recognizes

Ontario recognizes two main kinds of personal will, and the difference is mostly about witnessing.

The first is the formal or attested will, the typed document signed in front of two witnesses described above. It is by far the most common and the easiest to prove later. The second is the holograph will, which is written entirely in your own handwriting and signed by you, with no witnesses required at all. A holograph will is genuinely valid in Ontario, but it is risky, because handwriting can be unclear, wording can be ambiguous, and homemade wills are challenged more often.

Ontario also allows wills to be witnessed over audio-visual technology on a permanent basis, as long as at least one witness is a lawyer or licensed paralegal. That option grew out of the pandemic and is now a settled part of the law, which is useful if you cannot gather witnesses in one room.

How to make a will in Ontario, step by step

Once you understand the rules, making a will in Ontario follows a clear path. The hard part is the thinking, not the paperwork.

1. List your assets and debts. Write down what you own, including property, accounts, and valuables, and what you owe. This shapes everything that follows.
2. Decide who gets what. Name your beneficiaries and the specific gifts or shares each one receives. The leftover amount, called the residue, also needs a home.
3. Choose your executor. This is the person who will carry out your wishes, called an estate trustee in Ontario. Pick someone organized and trustworthy, and name a backup.
4. Name a guardian if you have minor children. A will lets you nominate who should raise your children, which a court will weigh heavily.
5. Put it in writing and sign it correctly. Use a lawyer, an online service, or a kit, then sign in front of two qualified witnesses who sign as well.

The order matters because each step depends on the one before it. Rushing to sign before you have thought through beneficiaries and an executor is how people end up with a valid will that still causes problems.

What it costs to make a will in Ontario

The cost of a will in Ontario depends on how you make it and how complex your wishes are. There are three realistic routes, and the price gap is wide.

These are typical 2026 market ranges, and they vary by firm and city, with Toronto and Ottawa generally at the higher end and smaller practices in places like London or Windsor often lower. A lawyer will frequently prepare a will alongside powers of attorney as a package, which usually costs less per document than buying each separately. A free template is valid, but it cannot tell you whether your plan actually does what you intend, which is where mistakes hide.

What happens if you die without a will in Ontario

Dying without a will in Ontario is called dying intestate, and it means the Succession Law Reform Act decides who inherits, using a fixed formula that ignores your personal wishes.

The formula starts with a preferential share for a married spouse. For deaths in 2026, the spouse receives the first $350,000 of the estate before anything else is divided. After that, the split depends on who survives you.

There is one consequence that surprises many families. Under Ontario's intestacy rules, only a married spouse inherits. A common-law partner, no matter how long you lived together, receives nothing automatically and would have to make a separate dependant's claim. For unmarried couples, a will is the only reliable way to provide for each other.

What a will does not control

A will is powerful, but it does not govern every asset you own, and assuming it does is a common and costly mistake.

Two large categories pass outside your will entirely. The first is any asset with a named beneficiary, such as an RRSP, a TFSA, or a life insurance policy. That money goes straight to the named person regardless of what your will says. The second is property you own jointly with a right of survivorship, like a home held jointly with a spouse, which passes automatically to the surviving owner.

Keeping these designations current matters as much as the will itself. An ex-spouse left as the beneficiary on an old insurance policy will usually still collect, even if your will leaves everything to someone else. Reviewing beneficiaries after a marriage, separation, or major life change keeps your overall plan consistent.

Choosing your executor in Ontario

Your executor, called an estate trustee in Ontario, is the person who carries out your will, and choosing well matters more than most people expect.

The role is real work. An executor locates the will, applies for probate if it is needed, gathers and protects assets, pays debts and taxes, files the final tax return, and distributes what remains to the beneficiaries. It can stretch over a year or more for a complex estate. The best executor is organized, trustworthy, and willing to take it on, and naming a backup avoids a crisis if your first choice cannot serve. Ontario allows an executor to claim reasonable compensation, and courts often use a guideline of roughly 5% of the estate as a starting point, adjusted for the size and difficulty of the work.

Probate and Estate Administration Tax in Ontario

Many estates have to go through probate, and Ontario charges a tax on that process that is worth planning around.

Probate is the court process that confirms your will is valid and your executor has authority to act. When it is required, Ontario charges Estate Administration Tax on the value of the estate. As of 2026, the first $50,000 is exempt, and the tax is $15 for every $1,000 of value above that, which works out to about 1.5% on the amount over $50,000. Not every estate needs probate, and some assets that pass outside the will are not counted, which is one reason people structure their affairs with beneficiary designations and joint ownership in mind. Our guide to probate fees in Ontario breaks down what the tax costs at each estate size and when probate is required at all, and a lawyer can explain whether your own estate is likely to need it.

Do you need a lawyer to make a will in Ontario?

You do not legally need a lawyer to make a will in Ontario, and for a simple estate a good online service or kit is often enough. The value of a lawyer rises sharply with complexity.

Consider professional help when any of these apply: you own a business or property in more than one place, you have a blended family or want to treat children unequally, someone who depends on you has a disability, you expect a relative to contest the will, or you are setting up a will and a power of attorney together.

In those cases a lawyer does two things a template cannot, making sure the document is valid and hard to challenge, and spotting issues you would not know to ask about. Pairing your will with a power of attorney in Ontario in a single sitting is the most common reason people bring in a lawyer, since the two documents work as a set. If you are still weighing it, our guides on how to find a lawyer in Canada, whether you actually need a lawyer in Canada, and finding a trustworthy lawyer are good next reads.

How to change or revoke a will in Ontario

You can change your will at any time while you are mentally capable, either with a new will or with a codicil, which is a separate signed amendment that follows the same witnessing rules.

Two recent changes are worth knowing, because they reversed long-standing rules. Since January 1, 2022, getting married no longer revokes an existing will in Ontario, so a will made before a marriage now survives it. At the same time, a separation can now cancel gifts to a separated spouse, treating them as if they had died first for the purposes of the will, much like a divorce already did. Because life events like a separation agreement in Ontario, a divorce, and the purchase of a home all change who you want to provide for, reviewing your will every few years keeps it current.

How Olanur helps you find a wills lawyer in Ontario

We built Olanur to remove the hardest step in getting legal help: figuring out which lawyer fits your situation. Instead of cold-calling firms, you describe what you need once, and our matching system connects you with verified Ontario lawyers who handle wills and estates. There is no cost, no sign-up wall, and no obligation.

Lawyers on our platform are licensed and vetted, and the match is based on your actual needs and location, which for a will usually means a wills and estates lawyer who can prepare the document and review your wider plan. If you would rather see the process first, our walkthrough of how Olanur works explains it step by step, lawyer lookup in Ontario covers the Ontario-specific ways to find vetted help, and our overview of family lawyers in Canada covers the life events that most often prompt people to finally get a will in place.

Frequently asked questions

Getting your will done

A will is a small document with a large job, and the only real mistake is not having one. Whether you use a kit for a simple estate or work with a lawyer for a complex one, what matters is a valid, current will that names your executor, provides for the people you choose, and spares your family a process they did not ask for.

If you want a professional to prepare it or check that your plan holds together, Olanur can match you with a verified Ontario wills lawyer, free and with no pressure. You can also read the rules yourself in the Succession Law Reform Act on CanLII, review Ontario's Estate Administration Tax details, or browse the Canadian Bar Association's public resources on wills and estates.