How to make a will online in Ontario
What Ontario law requires for a valid will, how online wills are signed and witnessed, and when an online will is the wrong answer. From $599.
What it costs
as a coupleAlso a business, a trust, or assets outside Ontario. A lawyer takes each person’s instructions and quotes you before anything starts.Book a call →
Our fee is agreed in writing before any work starts and held in our trust account until it is earned. Plus HST and disbursements such as courier. Nothing is charged if we stop.
How it works
- Answer the questionsAbout fifteen minutes. Your executor, your beneficiaries, guardians for any children under eighteen, and how the rest of your estate is divided. You can save and come back.
- A lawyer reviews it within 72 hoursA licensed Ontario estates lawyer reads and approves every clause before you see it, within 72 hours of your fee reaching our trust account. Not a template and not a queue.
- Print it and sign in inkOntario does not permit an electronic signature on a will, so you print it and sign with a pen.
- Two witnesses, by video or in personOne of them is your Lexaltico lawyer. Neither witness may be anyone who inherits under the will.
- The original goes somewhere safeOntario has no wills registry. We record where the signed paper is kept, because a will that cannot be found is treated as revoked.
What we will not do online
Thirteen answers stop the form. When one of them applies we say so, take no money, and a lawyer takes it from there.
- You and your spouse making wills together
- A business, or shares in a private company
- A trust, or a beneficiary who receives disability support
- Assets outside Ontario
- A child from a previous relationship
- Separated but not divorced
- Leaving out someone who might expect to inherit
- An executor who lives outside Ontario
Those are the matters where a form gets it wrong and somebody finds out years later. Our lawyer drafted service handles all of them, from $599.
Questions worth asking
Is a will made online legally valid in Ontario?
Yes, provided it meets section 4 of the Succession Law Reform Act: it is in writing, signed at its end by the testator, and signed by two witnesses who were both present at the same time. How the document was drafted is irrelevant to its validity. How it is signed is everything.
Can I sign a will electronically in Ontario?
No. Section 31 of the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 expressly excludes wills from electronic signatures. Every valid Ontario will is signed in wet ink on paper, including one drafted online. You print it and sign it with a pen.
Can my witnesses attend by video?
Yes, since 2021. Remote witnessing by audio visual link is permanent in Ontario, and at least one of the two witnesses must be a licensee of the Law Society of Ontario. The will may be signed in counterparts, which is how everyone signs their own printed copy.
Can a beneficiary witness my will?
They can, but it voids the gift to them. Section 12 of the Succession Law Reform Act makes a gift to a witness, or to a witness's spouse, void while leaving the rest of the will standing. Choosing the wrong witness is the most common way a homemade will goes wrong.
What does a will cost in Ontario?
Our legal fee is agreed in writing before any work starts, plus HST and disbursements such as courier. A simple will is from $599, whether you start online or with a lawyer. It is not an hourly rate.
When is an online will the wrong answer?
When you and your spouse are making wills together, when you own a business or shares in a private company, when you hold assets outside Ontario, when a child is from a previous relationship, when a beneficiary receives disability support, or when you are separated but not divorced. Our form stops in each of those cases and hands you to a lawyer, and nothing is charged.
How long does the lawyer take?
A licensed Ontario estates lawyer reviews your will within 72 hours of your fee reaching our trust account. If an answer raises something a form should not handle we stop before that point, call you, and nothing is charged.
Start your will
About fifteen minutes, from $599. A lawyer reviews it within 72 hours, before you see it, and if your answers show something a form should not handle we stop and call you.