Do It Yourself Wills, Beware!

An online Will Kit may not necessarily be designed for Alberta law.

If the Will does not abide by the legislation and the rules for what makes a valid Will according to Alberta’s Wills and Succession Act, S.A. 2010, c. W-12.2, that Will can be deemed invalid in Alberta. Google tends to serve up a myriad of information, some of which has to be combed through to weed out the reliable from the unreliable information. Another problem with DIY Wills (particularly the online ones) is that they are not always up to date with the current legislation of the Province, which can also make the Will invalid.

DIY Wills are also very basic

They do not cater to complex estates, estates with international property, or blended families with step-children and biological children. There is also the issue of wording; those who use DIY Wills are sometimes convinced that they have to pepper the Will with ‘legalese’ because they believe such language is part of the Will (mostly because they heard or read it somewhere). The problem is, if one in unable to understand the legal word they use in the Will, how can they know if it was used in its correct context.

The leading pitfall to any DIY Will – no legal advice included. A lawyer who drafts a Will is versed in the legislation and what must be included in a Will. A lawyer will also take the time to break down the components of the Will with you while taking into consideration your personal situation and your testamentary wishes. Without legal advice, an individual runs the risk of drafting the Will incorrectly without the proper guidance. They can also run the risk of signing the Will incorrectly too. An example of this is not having enough witnesses, having a beneficiary witness the Will, or forgetting to add an Affidavit of Execution.

I have been asked, “if they are to be approached with such caution, why are Will Kits even sold or placed online?” There are a number of reasons – for one thing they are not illegal. In fact, if the estate is very small and very simple, and the instructions on how to write out the Will are followed precisely, sometimes the DIY Will is all you need and it can be declared as valid. Another reason is that many people are not informed about the pitfalls of DIY Wills. Since they are not informed about the pitfalls, they are willing to spend the cheaper price of a DIY Will (and it is true, a DIY Will is considerably cheaper than having one drafted by a lawyer). However, if it is not drafted correctly and the Will is deemed invalid by the courts, the cost to deal with your intestate estate will be far greater than the expenditure you would have made to have it drafted for you.