Ontario-based financial planner argues convenience and ease of use make these digital solutions ideal – for certain situations
Continuing from the momentum of tech adoption driven by the pandemic crisis, online wills have become a more prominent fixture in Canada’s wealth space. While those digital solutions have a place in the world of estate planning, clients and advisors shouldn’t take them as one-size-fits-all, says one planning professional.
“I do have some clients who use them and more and more using them as time goes on,” says Brenda Hiscock, a financial planner at Objective Financial Partners in Ontario. “There's a surprising number of people – shocking, actually – who don't have wills or powers of attorney in place at all.”
A simple and convenient solution
According to Hiscock, online wills fill an important gap in the marketplace. A large swath of the Canadian population has not set up wills or powers of attorney, she says, mainly because they believe their financial situation is too simple to warrant that kind of planning. For those individuals and households, she says the convenience and ease of use of online wills make them an ideal solution.
“Online wills are easy to update, and in some cases, there’s no fee to update them,” she says. “When you go on the web and do an online will, the instructions are very clear … You’re guided step by step as you go along.”
For a will to be legal, Hiscock says it needs to have a wet signature, with witnesses present to verify it. She adds that wills cannot be stored online except in BC, which is why it’s especially important to ensure all steps are followed in that jurisdiction.
“These online will services are very simple and cost-effective. The fees for a will typically start at $50, and for a power of attorney, it’s $100 and up,” she says.
Not built for complexity
Like any tool in estate planning, online wills aren’t suitable in all cases. As Hiscock notes, they don’t lend themselves well to clients with more complex situations, which can include business owners, people with multiple real estate holdings, those with assets outside of Canada, blended families, and clients with dependents who have ongoing care needs.
“It’s very common for expatriates to sometimes build up wealth in international brokerages,” she says. “Online wills are not suitable for those situations. … They require an estate lawyer – and in some cases, a specialized estate lawyer – to deal with those complexities.
“Some of the larger providers do not provide will services to all of the provinces,” she adds. “If people need to get a will done in Quebec, that’s specific to Quebec because they have different laws and formats … The structures and terms differ.”
Clients can certainly consider online wills if they have a straightforward wealth situation, Hiscock says. That includes people who are just starting to build their wealth, single people with a limited number of beneficiaries, or a newly married couple where each person names their spouse as their beneficiary.
“Once you have children in the picture, I personally lean towards working with an estate lawyer just because guardianship is such an important decision and a critical part of the will,” Hiscock says. “I feel like a lawyer can provide guidance around the various considerations when making this choice.”
In the past, Hiscock says she’s faced resistance from some clients with respect to estate planning conversations; a single person with no dependents, for example, may be concerned about the steep costs of putting a traditional will in place. In those kinds of simple situations, she says the ability to offer online wills as a more cost-friendly option can help advisors protect their clients’ wealth and legacy after death.
“It’s really important that we as advisors speak to every single client about this because it’s at the foundation of any financial plan,” Hiscock stresses.
