How to Make a Will in Canada: Willful vs. Lawyer Comparison - YouTube

Hey guys, Jessica here and thank you so much for joining me on my channel for

this video. I want to dive into a topic that a lot of people don't like to talk

about or think about because it's sort of morbid. What I'm talking about is

getting a will done. It sounds like something that you should do, yet most people

don't do. Actually, there are some crazy stats out there that say basically the

majority of Canadians do not have a will and that is not okay.

I'm gonna explain what it means if you die without a will and I'm also gonna

show you what you can do to get a will done for not a lot of money in a very

easy and legal way. So, I know getting a will may not be on your radar because

maybe you think "Oh I'm too young" or "I don't have enough money" or whatever the

case. I'm gonna first share this very important list with you that shows you

if you are in any of these categories you need to get it will. Now, if you don't

fit into any of those categories, I would still suggest maybe looking into getting

a Power of Attorney. So, if you are incapacitated or something happens to

you and you cannot make decisions on your own you need someone else to do

that for you, that is what a Power of Attorney does. It is not very expensive,

but definitely something that you should look into if you aren't ready to also

get a will. Talking more specifically about getting a will, there's a couple

different ways you can do it. I'm going to talk about two different ways in this

video: the old-school way and the new-school way. Now, both ways are totally

fine and they're basically, in my view, one isn't necessarily better than the

other. Going the old-school way is a bit more expensive, but it allows for more

customization. If you have a very complex estate situation, that is definitely the

route should go. If you have very simple will needs, doing the kind of

new-school digital way is totally fine in my opinion. Now, I actually wrote a

blog post on this topic, so I'm gonna link it in the description if you want

to check it out. But let's talk about the differences between using a traditional

estate lawyer and using Willful. So, I'm gonna be totally

transparent, I got my will going the old-school way. I hired an estate lawyer.

Me and my husband paid I think in total $1,100 for two wills and Power of

Attorney documents and the process was pretty seamless. It was a bit

inconvenient in that we had to go to their office to sign all of the

documents during the day because they were only open during business hours so I

did have to take some time off work, he's self-employed so that wasn't that big of

an inconvenience, but for me it was actually kind of a big deal. So, that was

sort of annoying and the cost, yeah, $1,100! Not super cheap and really at the

end of the day what they just gave us was they provided us with a template.

We had to kind of fill out some of the details and then we went to their office

and signed everything. It probably took us total two hours and at the end of the

day it was like a very simple will that cost us $1,100! I don't regret it because

now we are protected we have a will in place if something happens, but learning

about some different options I may have gone a different route. Now, to be fair

Willful did not exist the year that I got a will done. We got it in 2016,

Willful has only been around in Canada since 2017. It is very new but comparing

my documents that I got from my lawyer to what is provided in Willful,

they're very comparable. And Willful is a fraction of the cost. Not only

that, when you use a lawyer, and again not bashing lawyers, I'm glad I went with one.

if you want legal advice, if you want some you know really personal

one-on-one interaction with somebody that you can ask questions with and if

you just need or have complex needs, if you have a very convoluted situation,

go with a lawyer. If you have a very simple situation, in my view, if I could

do it again, I would use Willful. And this is not a sponsored video at all. I

just did my due diligence. I looked at their program and this is something that

I would personally recommend to friends and family, and if I could do it over I

would use Willful. What is really interesting I think, for me, the biggest

thing is for Willful right now if you use their platform you can make updates

and changes for FREE forever. I think they'll probably eventually cap

on that because that's a crazy deal because if I want to make any updates or

changes to my will, which I will need to because what if I have kids, my older

sister is having a child, maybe I want to put that child in my will, what if I get

divorced or there's lots of different scenarios where I will need to

update my will, it will cost me $250 per hour to hire that lawyer to make any

updates. That's not cheap. With Willful, it is absolutely FREE. Now, one question that

keeps popping up when I talk to people about this is a lot of people think that

using a program like Willful or any other kind of like Do-It-Yourself will kit,

they're afraid that it will not basically be a legal will and testament.

Whereas when you're using a lawyer, for sure, totally legal.

Well, here's the thing, in Canada you do not have to use a lawyer to make a legal

will and testament. Absolutely not. Again, like I mentioned, they just gave me

a template to use that they drafted up and I just filled it in and then we all

signed it together, the two lawyers at that office were my witnesses, and that

was kind of it. So, if you were to do something like Willful you would get

that template, you would fill it out then you would have to find those two

witnesses that have nothing to do with your will (they're not beneficiaries, you

can't pay them, they have to be completely objective) and then it becomes

a legal will and testament. It's really important to understand this because I

feel like a lot of lawyers will chime in being like I wouldn't do that. Here's the

thing, you can absolutely use some sort of DIY will kit or Willful to create a

legal will and testament and Power of Attorney documents. So that is just

something I really want to drive home because there's a lot of misconceptions

about that, but no, you do not need to use a lawyer in order to make a legal will.

Another thing I see a lot on other blogs and forums about making your own will is

people are worried that if you use a DIY will kit or Willful, that there's a

higher chance your will will be contested in court by beneficiaries or

people that thought they were gonna be in the will and they're not, as opposed

to if you were to use a lawyer. That is not the case. I think if your will is going

to be contested it doesn't matter if a lawyer drafted it up or you used Willful

or something like that. It will just be contested, so there's no basically benefit in that

respect to using a lawyer over Willful. Also, and maybe this is just me being

like who gives a crap because you will be dead. You will not know that it's

being contested you will be long dead so that's just like something I'm like I

don't really give a crap if my will is contested because I will be dead. That's

just me being a little bit morbid though, sorry about that.

Another question I see a lot is well, you know, I can make a mistake if I'm doing

it DIY, there's a likelihood that I can make mistakes, I am NOT an estate lawyer.

If I hire someone, then there's maybe a less likelihood that they

will make a mistake. Yeah, that's probably true, they are an estate lawyer. They are

experts in that field. You are not a legal expert. But when it comes to again

really driving home this idea of a SIMPLE will, not a complex will situation,

it's very straightforward. I read all of my will documents and compared it to

Willful and yeah it's not that complicated. It's pretty like, it's pretty

clear and pretty just straight to the point. So in that respect, I mean yes

there's always the chance of human error if you do it on your own, but there's

also the chance of human error on the lawyer's part, you know what I mean? I mean

people make mistakes, but again, if that is a concern of yours, then just hire an

estate lawyer. So, now I want to give you a view on what Willful looks like if

you're in the program. To me, it reminds me actually a lot of, you know, just

online tax software, which I kind of like. So, it just walks you through all the

different steps you need to take and then the last kind of thing to make it a

legal will is you have to print those documents, you have to get two witnesses

to sign them, you have to keep the originals, you can give copies to some

beneficiaries or those witnesses or whoever you want. Make sure that you keep

your will, and this is like if you go with a lawyer or use Willful, keep it

someplace safe. Some people store it in a you know safety deposit box at a bank

or just a safe space in your home, someplace that it won't burn up in

a fire basically. But I say definitely make sure that you give copies to some

important people that you know they will need a copy if you die. Okay, first things

first obviously is go to Willful.co, the website for Willful. You're gonna want to

scroll down to the middle section of the website, there's a ton of info, but I'm

just gonna show you the prices so you know the different tiers. The prices you

can expect obviously very cheap compared to going to a lawyer. There's also a blog

under at the "Learn" tab, but let's get to it see what it looks like inside. So

it'll ask you some personal details about your name and your birthday. I'm

not gonna tell you but I'm sure you can find out my age. What gender do you most

identify with. What your marital status is. For this example, I'm going to keep it

very simple and just pretend I'm like single because married or common-law you

have to do the other person's, so I'm not gonna do that. Do you have any children?

No. Do you have any pets? I do not. Do you rent or own your home? I currently

own my home. And then it asks you what kind of plan do you want, so that's why

we look at the prices first. There's obviously the Premium and Couples. For

this example, I'm just gonna choose Essentials, just the basic plan. But you

can just toggle between them to see the differences and

whichever plan you want to choose. Then it's like, let's get to work. Let's really

do this. Let's make a will! So, first you're gonna identify who you want as

your Executor, which is very important. You can choose of course more than one

person. Next, what is your final resting place? What do you want happening? I'm

going to choose cremation myself, but there's lots of different options, so

definitely take your time and think about this. Then where do you want, for me

I'm gonna be cremated, where do I want my ashes to go? Then what kind

of ceremony do you want? Do you want a funeral? I want something more fun like a

wake or a celebration, so that's what I would personally like. That's what I'm

gonna choose. Next, what kind of gifts do you have? Specific gifts that you want to

give to beneficiaries, like a fancy painting that you bought somewhere. It

could be whatever you want and however many as you want so this is where you

would put that information. If you want to make any charitable donations to a

specific charity, this is where you would do that. Which i think is actually pretty

cool. How would you like to allocate your estate after you're gone? And

then you get to choose if you want to give it to a charity or just specific

people, dependents, family, friends, whatever you like.

Next, it's asking you some information about your beneficiaries. You know, if one

of your beneficiaries predeceases you, like dies before you die, what do you

want to do? Either go directly to their children or you can divide it among your

other beneficiaries? And if you have any beneficiaries that are under 18, you

got to figure out what to do with that inheritance money. Do you want

to wait until they are 18, 21, or 25 before they receive that full

inheritance? And that is it. I know, I went just like super, super fast just so you

got a feel for it. So, definitely don't go as fast as I did. Take your time,

especially if you have a spouse too or a partner you're gonna want to have some

conversations about some of these things and it's actually kind of interesting,

you know, going through the process and then really having a good think about

this because I guarantee you've probably never thought about, you know, what

do you want to happen to your body or what kind of celebration

or ceremony do you want after you die? It's, you know, depending on your age,

you maybe have never thought about it, but it's just so important to get it done

and have a think. But yeah, it's pretty straightforward and simple. And there you

go! That is what Willful looks like. If you want to try it out you can try it

out for free, you can go through the whole process, you can see that I did

that myself and I already have a will, so I did not use Willful to get a new

will. There's no point I think, unless I want to make a brand new will or make

some changes to what I currently have. So you can try it out for yourself and

just see how it works for free. But if you do want to actually move forward and

get it, I highly recommend that you use a promo code to save a little money and

guess what I have a promo code. So, if you use MOMONEY15 you can save 15% off on

any will package. So my tip for everything ever, if you're ever buying

something online, always see if there's a promo code so you can save a little bit

of money. Thank you so much for watching this kind of review and tutorial on

using lawyer vs. using Willful. I hope you enjoyed it. Make

sure to subscribe to my channel, like and comment below. Let me know what you think.

If you have any other questions about wills or estate planning, I would love, I

would love to know! So please include them in the comments. Thanks again for

watching and I will see you next time!