Rudy Mezzetta
Estate practitioners are applauding an Ontario government proposal to provide courts with the power to save wills that might otherwise be found invalid due to technical errors a power that already exists in the majority of Canadian jurisdictions.
When a will is deemed invalid, estate property is distributed according to the intestacy rules found in a province’s estate act, rather than as the deceased may have intended.
In all provinces except Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, the courts have a mechanism to save an otherwise invalid will and declare it valid. The eight provinces operate under what’s known as a “substantial compliance” regime.
Rudy Mezzetta
Estate practitioners are applauding an Ontario government proposal to provide courts with the power to save wills that might otherwise be found invalid due to technical errors a power that already exists in the majority of Canadian jurisdictions.
When a will is deemed invalid, estate property is distributed according to the intestacy rules found in a province’s estate act, rather than as the deceased may have intended.
In all provinces except Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador, the courts have a mechanism to save an otherwise invalid will and declare it valid. The eight provinces operate under what’s known as a “substantial compliance” regime.