When Should You Start Estate Planning in Canada?
A 31-year-old contract software engineer in Halifax with $40,000 in a TFSA, $90,000 in an RRSP, a one-year-old daughter, and a partner he is not legally married to dies suddenly. He has no will, no named guardian, no power of attorney, and the registered accounts list a beneficiary he set up before his daughter was born — his mother. Because Nova Scotia does not treat an unmarried common-law partner as a spouse for intestacy, the estate passes entirely to his daughter under the intestacy formula — his partner of years inherits nothing from it, an outcome he never intended. The mother receives the RRSP and TFSA payouts directly. There is no named guardian, so the family court decides who raises the child.
Every part of this outcome was determinable in advance and almost none of it costs more than an evening to fix. The trouble with the "I will get to it eventually" framing is that nobody knows when the eventually is — and the planning has to be done before the trigger, not after.
This guide answers the practical question of when, exactly, a Canadian should start.
The three triggers — any one is enough
Most discussions of "when to start estate planning" anchor on age, which is the wrong variable. The right framing is triggers. Estate planning generally starts at the moment any of these three things become true:
Trigger 1 — a dependant. Someone whose life would change materially if your income or your decision-making vanished. A spouse or common-law partner, a child of any age, an elderly parent receiving support, sometimes a sibling or even a pet. Once a dependant exists, the consequences of not planning shift from "your stuff goes somewhere you might not have chosen" to "a person's life is materially disrupted."
Trigger 2 — meaningful assets in your own name. Not just savings — registered accounts, vehicles, real estate equity, life-insurance proceeds, business interests, or significant employment-related benefits. "Meaningful" is judged against the size of your household, not in absolute dollars. For a young adult, $30,000 in an RRSP and a beneficiary form that needs updating is meaningful.
Trigger 3 — a clear preference about decision-making. Healthcare decisions if you become incapacitated, organ-donation intent, who would handle your finances, what your funeral should look like. Even Canadians without dependants or significant assets often have preferences here that they would not want a court or a default rule to override.
If any one of these is true, the conversation about "should I have a will?" is no longer about whether — it is about how much to put in it. The standard age-based shorthand ("sometime in your forties") is mostly wrong. Most Canadians hit at least one trigger in their twenties or early thirties.
The intestacy default is usually worse than people expect
The reason none of this is purely academic is that dying without a will in Canada does not produce nothing — it produces a default outcome dictated by the provincial intestacy statute.[1][2] That default is rarely what the deceased would have chosen.
Three features of intestacy that frequently surprise people:
- The share to the surviving spouse is not 100% if there are children. In most provinces the spouse receives a preferential share (a fixed dollar amount) plus a fraction of the remainder; the rest goes to the children. The preferential share varies by province.
- Common-law partners are not always treated as spouses for intestacy. Some provinces include long-cohabitation partners as spouses for intestacy; others do not. This is one of the most common sources of unintended outcomes.
- The court appoints an administrator, not an executor of your choice. Often a close family member volunteers, but the process is slower and more expensive than naming an executor in a will.
Intestacy also does nothing for the non-estate questions — guardianship of minor children, healthcare decisions during your lifetime, funeral wishes. These have no default. If the document does not say what you want, the default is "the family argues."
The four planning moments most Canadians actually pass through
Most adult Canadians pass through four moments where estate planning is worth doing or revisiting. The earlier ones are simpler; the later ones add layers.
Moment 1 — First serious financial relationship or first major asset. Around the late twenties for many Canadians. A first home, a first joint account, moving in with a partner, opening a TFSA with serious money. A basic will plus beneficiary designations is usually enough.
Moment 2 — First dependant. A child born or adopted, sometimes a partner who has stepped back from work or an elderly parent moving in. Guardianship, life insurance, and a trust structure for minor inheritance become important. This is the moment most parents in Canada finally get a will.
Moment 3 — First significant asset complexity. A business interest, an inheritance, cross-border assets, a second property, a higher-tax-bracket job with stock options. Tax planning and trust structures start to matter; many people involve a lawyer or tax professional for the first time.
Moment 4 — First serious health event or retirement. A diagnosis, a parent's death, or the start of retirement. Powers of attorney move from theoretical to operational. The will gets re-examined against current assets and family. Funeral wishes get documented.
Most Canadians visit Moment 1 and Moment 2 before they think they "need" estate planning. By the time they consciously start, they are at Moment 3 and the back-fill is more work.
What "starting" actually looks like
Starting does not mean a multi-hour meeting with a lawyer. For most Canadians at Moment 1 or Moment 2, it looks like this:
- A simple will naming an executor, an alternate, a guardian for minor children (if applicable), specific gifts (if any), and a residue clause.
- Beneficiary designations on every registered account and insurance policy, confirmed in writing from each institution. (Designations on the form generally override anything in the will.)
- A continuing power of attorney for property naming who handles finances if you lose capacity.
- A power of attorney for personal care / advance directive (province-specific name) for healthcare decisions.
- A Life Discovery Kit equivalent — a private document telling the executor where the will lives, what accounts exist, and how to find what they need.
For most uncomplicated Canadian households, this can be completed in two evenings — one to gather information, one to make the decisions and produce the documents. The cost is meaningfully less than the legal-route equivalent for the same complexity.
For broader context, see our pillar guide on estate planning in Canada, and the related cluster articles on dying without a will and how to write a will.
What we focus on at It's Simple Will
It's Simple Will is designed for the Canadians who are at Moment 1 or Moment 2 and have been putting off the conversation. The Will Creator walks the structured questions in plain language; the Life Discovery Kit captures the operational detail; the Funeral Pre-Planner picks up the wishes beyond what the will captures structurally. The whole bundle is intentionally priced to make the "I will get to it eventually" answer the more expensive choice.
The honest answer to "when should I start?" is: usually about five years before you thought you should.
Citations & sources
- [1]Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 (Ontario intestacy) — Government of Ontario
- [2]Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 (BC intestacy) — BC Laws
- [3]Wills and Succession Act, SA 2010, c W-12.2 (Alberta intestacy) — CanLII
- [4]Doing taxes for someone who died (CRA) — Canada Revenue Agency
- [5]Financial Consumer Agency of Canada — Retirement planning (includes estate-planning basics) — Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Frequently asked questions
Is it too early to make a will at 25?
For most 25-year-olds it is too early in the sense that the document is simple and may be replaced within a few years. But it is not too early in the sense that mattering. If you have a partner, a child, a pet you would want cared for, or any meaningful asset (a vehicle, an RRSP, a TFSA, a life-insurance policy), a basic will is appropriate. The cost of writing it is low and the cost of dying without one is high enough to make the trade-off easy.
What happens if I die in Canada without a will?
Each province has an intestacy formula that distributes the estate among the closest surviving relatives in a fixed order — typically spouse and children first, then parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives. The formula varies by province on how much goes to the spouse versus the children. The court appoints an administrator (similar to an executor), often a family member who has to apply and post a bond. A common law partner is not always treated as a spouse for intestacy purposes; rules vary materially by province.
How does estate planning change after a child is born?
Three changes ordinarily become urgent. First, a named guardian for the minor child — the will is the document where this is set out. Second, a structure for managing money on the child's behalf if both parents die, since a child cannot inherit cash directly until age of majority. Third, life insurance sized to support the child to adulthood. Many parents in Canada do this work in the first few months after the birth, but later is still much better than not at all.
When should I appoint a power of attorney?
As soon as you have assets you would want managed if you could not manage them yourself, or healthcare preferences you would want respected if you could not state them. There is no minimum age in the common-law provinces other than mental capacity at the time of signing. Many Canadians do not appoint a power of attorney until their fifties or sixties; the financial and medical risks justify doing it much earlier.
Should estate planning happen before or after a major purchase like a home?
Before, in the ideal case. Mortgages, title structure (joint tenancy versus tenancy in common), and how the property would pass at the death of one owner are all estate-planning decisions that get baked in at the moment of closing. Restructuring these later is possible but more expensive and sometimes triggers tax consequences. If the purchase has already happened, the estate planning should still happen — just immediately, not later.
Is estate planning only for wealthy Canadians?
No, and the framing is misleading. Wealth changes the complexity (trusts, holding companies, cross-border issues, capital-gains planning) but not the need. The core questions — who decides if you cannot, who inherits, who raises any minor children, who handles the funeral — apply at every wealth level. A median Canadian household has more than enough at stake to warrant a will.