Step-by-step: how to make a legally valid will in Canada

Begin with an inventory: list assets, debts, beneficiary designations on registered plans and insurance, and any jointly-held property that will pass by right of survivorship outside the will. Only what remains is distributable under the will itself, and drafting choices should reflect that distinction rather than assume the will controls every dollar.

Next, select fiduciaries: at least one primary executor with a backup; guardians for any minor children with a backup; and, if applicable, a pet guardian and a business-continuity successor. Speak to each nominee before you name them — an unwilling executor who renounces forces the estate into a substitution application and delays administration.

Draft, review, sign, and store. In most common-law provinces the will must be signed in ink by the testator in the simultaneous physical presence of two independent adult witnesses who then sign in the testator's presence; beneficiaries and their spouses should not witness. British Columbia additionally recognises electronic wills executed and witnessed under its Wills, Estates and Succession Act regime. Keep the original in a known, secure location and tell the executor where to find it.