Congratulations on getting your will in place! Once you’re happy with your will and it has been signed, witnessed, and stored in a safe place, there's one step left: registering your will. You can register your will for free on the Willful Will Registry—and it’s as easy as a few clicks. This article explains why it’s important to register your will and outlines step-by-step instructions for registering your will.
Please note that if you live in BC, there is a provincial will registry as well that allows residents to register their will for a fee.
Why should I register my will?
Not many people know when their estate planning documents will be needed—such is the nature of life and death. Many things can happen between the day you write, sign, and store your will and the day your executor and/or family will need to find it. Lawyers retire, law firms close, and people move. When a family can’t find a will, the law presumes the will was revoked. This has major implications as your estate will then be distributed according to a government formula rather than your wishes. There are situations where it is possible, despite the loss of an original signed will, to make an application to the court for an order declaring the validity of a lost or misplaced original signed will, however, this is often quite onerous as there are a number of requirements that must be proven, the most difficult of those to satisfy being able to rebut the legal presumption that the testator destroyed the will with the necessary intention to revoke it. In short, to prevent unnecessary difficulties, it is a good idea to register your will.
But what if I made copies?
Your executor(s) need to find the original documents that have been wet-signed (signed on paper with ink). Attempting to probate a copy of a will (moving the will through the court system) requires an expensive and highly uncertain court procedure.
How do I register my will if I’ve made my will with Willful?
After completing, signing, and witnessing your will, decide on a safe place to store it. This should be somewhere accessible to your executor—possibly in a fireproof box/bag or secure filing cabinet at home. If you’re storing your will in a safe or safety deposit box, ensure your executor or family members know how to access it in the event of your passing. Make sure to inform your executor of the location and then log in to your Willful account.
You will see a prompt to register your will as a recommended next step on your dashboard. If not, you can select Menu > Documents. Under Legal Documents, in the Last Will and Testament section, select Finalize my will. On the next page, you can now select Register my will.
You’ll then register your will with the following information:
- The date your will was signed
- Your witnesses
- Where your signed will is stored
Next, select Complete my registration. You have now registered your will on the Willful Will Registry.
If you update your will or update the location of where you're storing it, you'll need to re-register to ensure the latest information is up to date.
Why can’t I just store my will online with Willful?
Unfortunately Canadian laws do not support digital signage and storage of wills. The Willful Will Registry is simply designed to provide confirmation that you have a will, and to make the location of your documents searchable. It does not allow you to upload or store your will—you still need to store a physical wet-signed copy, unless you're in British Columbia.
What if I’m an executor—how do I search for a will?
If you’re an executor looking for the will of a deceased friend or family member or believe you may have been chosen as their executor, you can contact Willful Support and Willful will validate the user and ensure you are entitled to access the registration.
Notice to Creditors
As an executor, NoticeConnect, the company behind CanadaWillRegistry.org, makes your job easier in another way. When a person passes away, their executor has to put out a Notice to Creditors so that anyone owed money by this person can come forward and claim it. If an executor distributes the estate without advertising for creditors, they could be required to personally pay any amounts owing to the extent that assets were distributed. While common practice is to advertise for any potential creditors of the deceased in three consecutive weekly editions of a local newspaper with sufficiently reasonable circulation (and in multiple jurisdictions if the deceased did business in a number of jurisdictions), it can also be done online. With NoticeConnect, executors can publish a notice to creditors in less than 5 minutes to protect themselves from this liability.
What if I want to keep this information private?
Willful uses top-tier encryption and regularly runs audits to keep your data safe. After your death, Willful Support will only share the details of your registration after validating someone is entitled to the access.
With the Canada Will Registry, your privacy is protected—NoticeConnect will only disclose the existence and location of your will after your death. Your data is encrypted and stored in Canada in one of the world’s top data centres.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I search for a will?
You can find a will by looking at home, searching will registries, and checking financial institutions.
2. What do you need to prove who you are and that the person has passed away to get the location of their will?
To protect user privacy, Willful cannot release account details or personal information without proper documentation. To get the registration details of a will from the Willful Will Registry, Willful will ask for:
- A death certificate
- Proof of your identity
- Proof of your relationship to the deceased
With this information, Willful can provide the registration details of a loved one once proof has been verified by the team.
3. If you decide to make a new will and register it, how can you go in and delete the old will that was registered previously? Is it an override or replace situation?
Willful will keep track of the date you last registered your will. If you've updated your will, you can opt to create a new registration or update the registration at any time.
