People without a will often assume everything simply goes to their spouse. In Ontario, the law decides, and the result surprises many families.
If you die without a valid will, you die intestate, and Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act decides who inherits, in a fixed order. You do not choose your executor, you cannot provide for a friend, a stepchild or a charity, and a common-law partner does not inherit at all.
A married spouse is entitled first to a set preferential share, and only then is the rest divided between the spouse and the children. Where there are children, the spouse may not receive the entire estate. For families who assumed the survivor would simply keep everything, this can be a painful discovery at the worst possible time.
A properly drafted will replaces the government's default entirely. For a cross-border family, it is also the only way to coordinate assets in more than one country. The cost of making one is a fraction of the cost of intestacy.
Immigration, family, corporate or cross-border. We will tell you honestly what can be done, and what cannot.
Book a Consultation没有遗嘱的人，常以为一切会自然归配偶所有。在安省，由法律决定，而结果让许多家庭意外。
如果你在没有有效遗嘱的情况下离世，即为“无遗嘱(intestate)”，由安省《继承法改革法》按固定顺序决定谁继承。你不能选择遗嘱执行人，不能为朋友、继子女或慈善机构作出安排，而同居伴侣则完全不能继承。
已婚配偶首先有权获得一份固定的“优先份额(preferential share)”，之后剩余部分才在配偶与子女之间分配。在有子女的情况下，配偶可能并不能获得全部遗产。对于那些以为“在世一方自然什么都留着”的家庭，这可能是在最糟时刻的痛苦发现。
一份起草得当的遗嘱，能彻底取代政府的默认规则。对跨境家庭而言，它也是协调分布在多个国家资产的唯一方式。立遗嘱的成本，只是无遗嘱代价的一个零头。