Changing Your Will With A Move

Partner Nancy Ling regularly advises clients in the practice areas of wills, trusts, estate and incapacity planning, estate administration, residential and commercial real estate, property matters, corporate transactions, and business law.

In this edition of Legal Matters, Nancy talks about what should happen to your estate plan and your Will if you decide to move from one Canadian province or territory to another. 

Transcript:

Many people will live in one or more Canadian provinces over the course of their life and wonder if you need to redo your Will every time you move. The short answer is no. A move by itself will not invalidate a properly done Will. However, the longer answer is that you probably want to review your estate plan and get advice from a local Wills lawyer when there are big changes in your life. One issue is that you may own real estate in more than one province, and you'll want to get advice on how that will affect your executor's ability to effectively close your estate. You also might need to update your funeral plans if you don't intend for your body to be transported back to another province. There may also be differences in how the law treats disinherited beneficiaries in your new province for example, in BC, any biological child can contest a Will if they think it's unfair, no matter how wealthy that child is. However, in some other provinces, a child actually has to be financially dependent on you to contest your Will. While a move alone will not invalidate your will, it's a good idea to consider your estate plan when you have big changes to your life.