Is someone looking for a will in your vault?

If you draft wills, you need to know if someone is looking for one of the wills stored in your vault.

When someone dies and there is a will, the estate trustee may need to take steps to determine if this in fact the most recent will. This is particularly important if the will on hand is quite old. Similarly, when someone dies intestate, the trustee may want to make sure that the deceased hasn't made a will that the family isn't aware of.

Ontario does not have a will registry, which means that an estate trustee (usually through their lawyer) has to make an effort to find out if anyone has knowledge of a will made by the deceased. This often involves publishing "Knowledge of a Will" notices with local law associations, in the Ontario Reports, or on NoticeConnect.

We strongly recommend that estates practitioners in Ontario sign up to receive our free weekly email containing links to the new Knowledge of a Will notices on our site. This email is sent out every Tuesday morning. It's a great way to be kept in the loop if someone is looking for a will that you've got in your vault.

Click here to sign up: https://www.noticeconnect.com/notices/subscribe/