PLEA gratefully acknowledges our primary core funder the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan for their continuing and generous support of our organization.
A Will covers the distribution of your estate after you die. Your estate is made up of things you own or have an interest in. A Will only comes into effect upon your death. It can help ensure that your estate is divided the way you intended.
A Will gives you the opportunity to decide who inherits things you own. Without a Will, the law will determine this. It also allows you to name an executor to handle your estate. Otherwise, someone would need to apply to court to be able to do this.
There are certain legal requirements that must be met to create a valid Will. There are rules around signing, witnessing and ensuring that the Will truly reflects the wishes of the person who created it.
Dependants and spouses can make a claim on your estate in some circumstances. This can be done whether you have a Will or not and can change what is left to divide under the Will.
There are important things to know if you have children under 18 at the time you are creating your Will. Children under 18 cannot legally manage their own money so someone has to do this for them. Children under 18 also need someone to look after them. These are both things that you can address in your Will.
Once you have a made your Will, it can be easy to think that you do not have to doing anything else with it. Wills however need to kept safe and reviewed regularly. Certain life events can even make your Will or parts of it invalid.
The law sets out who will receive your property after your death if you do not have a Will. This means that you do not get to choose who will get what. It also means you cannot do some of the things you can with a Will such as appoint someone to look after your estate or someone to take care of your minor children.
PLEA offers free online training on preventing and addressing workplace harassment.