We were having dinner with friends the other evening and the question of wills came up and I mentioned to OH that we would have to rewrite ours now we were in Canada as our UK wills wouldnt be legal over here. He said I was wrong but I was sure I had read something on this site (or perhaps it was elsewhere as I cannot find the link). Am I just having one of those bad senior days that I seem to be having a lot of lately (perhaps its the altitude or did I read that we would have to redo them?

I would definitely get a Will done in Canada along with Powers of Attorney for Personal Care (called a living Will in the US) and finances.

Each province has its own rules about wills. Without going into too much depth, you should have your wills redone to ensure they are legal in the Province where you reside. If they are not they may be set aside and this could be a big problem for your beneficiaries.

We are in Alberta. I think I would be more comfortable redoing them. Then again OH writes them himself and gets them witnessed, not sure whether that holds up here either.

Not a good idea you could run in to a lot of problems doing that.

It might. It is possible to write a good will yourself, especially if your affairs are very simple. But you will be very lucky to write a legal will without studying the rules in your province. You can buy will kits and, as far as I know, they will work.

If you chose to go this route you should have everything you own in joint names: house, bank accounts, savings etc. Also that you name each other as beneficiaries of your life insurance policies. The reason for this is that banks will freeze accounts until a will has been probated, and if the Court decides a will is not legal it can hold up the probate process for many months.

I do agree that the few hundred dollars a lawyer or notary charges is money very well spent.

I work in a lawyers office as a receptionist and I've seen the effect it has on families when they have to deal with the stress caused by a poorly prepared Will or worse still no Will. I know people hate giving money to lawyers but in this case I agree it's money well spent.

I am not sure how it works in other provinces, but in Saskatchewan if you own property as joint tenants with another person or persons, when one of the joint tenants dies, the property is just transmitted to the other joint tenant. If you do not own property in this way, then the value of the property has to be included as an asset of the estate and you pay fees accordingly. Getting a solicitor's advice on a Will makes sure that you take advantage of the money saving schemes, as well as looking after your assets once you die.

Mind you, some people go a bit too far looking after their "stuff". Years ago I had to prepare a Will for an elderly lady, I guess she didn't have enough to do because attached to the Will was a huge great long list of every single thing she owned almost, and who was supposed to get it. I commented to the lawyer that it would be nice for the person who was going to get the avocado coloured fridge that was in the basement!!

Hello

UK wills are invalid when you leave the UK......

Makes sense really.....living in a different country and all that...

for what it costs get another one done...just my opinion...

Hi Bev,

Post #5 in the thread entitled Joint account weirdness has some information.
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We had to get Scottish wills, living in Scotland....had to redo them after moving from England.

So definitely you do need a will for where you live.

I disagree...a last will and testament is just that, whether its a holographic (written in you own hand) or type written and signed, as long as the will is witnessed by two unrelated persons then its a legal will.

A will does not need to be prepared by a lawyer or signed and sealed by a notary, although they will of course advise you to so.

If a will is prepared and witnessed moments before death, it becomes the last will, replacing the previous will that may have been drawn up by the fanciest lawyer in the province etc.

Although if you want to change your will by adding something new (to the existing will)...you can simply draft up a codicil.

If your will is a complicated one then by all means get professional help.

Any will written in a clear manner (properly signed and witnessed) would be hard to contest, however of course that is possible, even if drawn up by a lawyer or signed by a notary.

Its a good idea for all parties to initial all pages, don't just sign the signature page.

My two cents.....

I think it's compulsory, isn't it? I stupidly signed only the last page of my last Scottish will and the solicitor told me it's not valid for that reason. It doesn't matter now I'm resident here anyway, but it wasn't worth the fee for me to mess it up like that

I think the word is should....

It would certainly be best if all parties did...those witnesses (2 sometimes 3 of them) may be called to attest that they did properly witness the testator/testatrix do their thing and that the document is the real mccoy....signed and witnessed by them all.

Just found some easily digested info here, particularly with regard to signing:

http://www.legalwills.ca/signing_a_will.asp