Will the Ontario Government Take My Assets If I Die Without a Will?

A Last Will and Testament is a pretty important document to have in place at any age. In the event that you die without a Will in Ontario, the distribution of your estate will be governed by the Succession Law Reform Act – the act sets out the distribution of intestate successions in the Province of Ontario. The intestate regime in Ontario for successions without a will provides an equitable distribution of the assets among the direct and closest relatives of the deceased but excludes common-law spouses. Under the Succession Law Reform Act common-law partners are not recognized as “spouses” for intestate successions. It is therefore important to have a will that sets out your wishes if you are in a common-law relationship.

The Succession Law Reform Act provides for the following if you die without a will, depending on the circumstances at the time of death:

If you die with a spouse but no children, the entire estate goes to your spouse;

If you die with a spouse and children, your spouse gets the first $350,000 and the remainder is divided equally between your spouse and your children;

If you die with children but no spouse, your estate is shared equally among your children;

If you die with no children, no spouse, the estate would go to your parents, if no parents, then it gets divided equally among your siblings, if any siblings have pre-deceased, your deceased sibling’s children would get their share;

If you die with none of the above surviving you, the estate would get shared equally among any nieces and nephews alive at your death, if there are no nieces or nephews alive, then the estate would go to your next of kin of the closest degree that can be ascertained; failing which, the estate then escheats to the government of Ontario if no beneficiaries can be found.

Finally, if you die without a Will with assets in Ontario, the person who decides to apply to be appointed the executor of the estate will have to commence an Application for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee without a Will, a cost that can sometimes be avoided if a Will is in place at the time of death.

Contact Brown Beattie O’Donovan’s estate lawyers to start your Will and Estate planning today.