You may wonder if a close friend or family member left you anything in their will. Or perhaps you are unaware whether a departed relative or close friend left a will when they were alive. What are you able to do? Our will planning lawyer in Toronto is here to provide will services to ensure that this scenario does not arise in the future.
In contrast to other jurisdictions, Ontario lacks an official Will register that maintains track of all wills executed. Unless you serve as a power of attorney for someone else’s property, in which case you have the right to view the will, wills are confidential to the person who made it. Begin your search at home. Wills have been discovered hidden safely in desks, drawers, and safety deposit boxes.
To find out if the deceased deposited a will with the court, you can also contact the Superior Court of Justice’s Estates Court Office where they resided. The Proof of Death must be on hand. Asking the court to verify if someone applied for probate is another option. Anybody, including you, can obtain a copy of the Will as the original copy is now public knowledge because it has been filed with the court.
Think about getting in touch with Custodius, a commercial will storage option based in Kingston, Ontario. You can also contact the lawyer who prepared the will. They might have prepared the deceased’s will, provided legal advice regarding wills, or kept it safe.
If you hire a lawyer in Ontario, they might search Willcheck.ca, an Ontario wills registration database run by the County of Carleton Law Association that keeps track of where wills filed by attorneys with their clients’ permission are located. In 2017, Will Check began gathering will data. As a result, most of the data in this database is made up of will data going forward.
NoticeConnect’s Canada Wills Registry is another unofficial registry. It keeps track of where lawyers’ submitted wills are located, just like Will Check. Thousands of wills from throughout Canada have been recorded with the Canada Will Registry. Some wills date back to the early 1900s, although the majority date from the last 50 years. Additionally, NoticeConnect can help find wills not listed in their database. This service asks the legal community if anyone possesses or is aware of a certain will by sending a Knowledge of a Will notice to NoticeConnect’s email list, law libraries, and other partners.
The banks where the deceased had accounts can be contacted. The will may be in a safe deposit box. However, gaining entry could be challenging because the original will grant the designated executor access to the box.
Contact a will planning lawyer. A will planning lawyer may help you find an original will, advise you on how to proceed without one, and help you find a lost or missing will.
Even if you are a beneficiary in Ontario, you do not automatically have the right to view the will. However, you could ask the executor and estate trustee to show it to you.
Every beneficiary has the right to be notified of any application for probate. You are entitled to a copy of the complete will if you are a beneficiary of the estate’s assets. You are entitled to a copy of the portion of the will that details your inheritance if you are a beneficiary of a specific piece of property or a specified sum of money (referred to as a legacy).
Here are some important things to remember:
- Not every will is subject to probate. Numerous wills and jointly owned assets might not need to be probated.
- Weeks or months may pass before someone files for probate.
- In Ontario, a “reading of the will” is not necessary.
In the absence of a probate application, anyone who seems to have a financial stake in an estate may petition the court to require someone—who need not be the executor—to produce and present to the registrar any document that appears to be a will, provided that it can be demonstrated that the person in question has or controls it. “THIS COURT ORDERS that a copy of any Last Will and Testament or other testamentary document of the Deceased, including, without limitation, any beneficiary designation or joint account agreement, be delivered to the lawyers for the Applicant forthright,” states one possible clause in the court order.
Contact our Will Planning Lawyer in Toronto. We provide services to help you create your will and safe keep wills so that family members won’t have to go through the process of locating the will. Our team provides tailored guidance to ensure your final wishes are fulfilled.
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