Online wills convenient and cheaper but come with potential pitfalls

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When Erin Bury and her husband decided to set up their wills in their early 30s, their only option was to visit a lawyer. They knew there had to be an easier way.

“We just thought, there’s so much software, from Wealthsimple democratizing and simplifying investing to TurboTax doing this for taxes,” Bury said.

“Why can’t we simplify the process of creating a will and make it more affordable and accessible,” she said. The experience ultimately pushed her and her husband to co-found do-it-yourself will website Willful.

Setting up a will can be expensive and time-consuming, even for those who don’t have complex life and financial circumstances. It requires sitting down with an estate lawyer, going over the specifics about your assets and planning what happens after your death, all of which could cost upwards of $1,000.

Online and do-it-yourself wills aim to bridge the gap in accessibility and affordability for people who’d like to make a will. However, experts say this route may not be for everyone.

While working as a tax and estate planning lawyer, Daniel Goldgut noticed most people were looking for relatively basic planning. That means leaving everything to a spouse, dividing assets equally among children or naming a guardian for minor children.

“If we could automate the experience, make it easier, more approachable, more affordable, we might be able to help a lot more people get wills,” Goldgut said, who went on to co-found online will preparation platform Epilogue.

Websites such as Willful and Epilogue offer software to create a customized will without having to work with a lawyer. They begin with questions about your marital status, province of residence and dependents. The platforms also question you on aspects like special possessions you’d like to pass on, who your executor will be and how you would like to divide your assets.

Then, you’ll answer a few more in-depth questions such as, if your executor can’t act at the time you pass away, who should be the backup?

But there’s a difference between creating your will online and signing it to make it legally valid.

“When you create a will online with a tool like Willful, that means we can only lead you so far,” Bury said.

“We can give you an instructions page that outlines exactly how to sign that in front of witnesses to make it legally valid but we don’t know if you take that final step.”

Online wills are generally still required to be printed and hand-signed in the presence of two witnesses. But that’s not the case in every province — for example, British Columbia allows wills to be signed electronically.

But even if there’s an extra step to validate the document, the cost of creating an online will is much lower — typically ranging between $100 to $400.

However, creating a will online doesn’t offer the same legal advice a client would get when working with a lawyer.

Goldgut said online wills aren’t suitable for complex situations such as blended families, complicated assets, a child who’s receiving disability payments or if someone wants to be specific with the language.

That’s when people should consult a lawyer to set up a will that can accommodate specific terms, he added.

Esther Abecassis, a lawyer at Devry Smith Frank LLP, says there’s a chance of making an error in DIY wills, which can prolong the process of handling the assets.

For example, she said, if someone created a home-based will and had one witness sign the document instead of two, it could double the length of time the document spends going through the court process.

“Double the paperwork because you’re supposed to have two people witness the will, and probably, it’s going to cost them three to four times the amount,” Abecassis said.

“You’ve worked really hard your whole life,” she said. “You want to leave a legacy and not a legal mess.”

But Abecassis agreed having a will is better than having no will at all in most cases.

She suggested consulting a lawyer even when setting up an online will to be aware of the potential pitfalls.

“The courts don’t take lightly the transfer of assets in terms of a testator’s (the person who created the will) intention,” Abecassis said.

“That person’s not alive, so the courts have to make sure that they’re protecting that person.”