The usual reasons for not having a Last Will..

An Angus-Reid poll shows the reasons as to why Canadians don’t have Wills: a) few assets to worry about, b) the dislike over thinking about death, and c) the time-consuming nature of writing a Will and the confusion surrounding writing a Will (this can be solved through a DIY service, such as FormalWill.ca). 

These are the usual reasons as to why people put off creating a Will, and these reasons have been consistent over a number of years that Angus-Reid has been running this survey across Canada. 50 percent of Canadians don’t have a Will; and four in five Canadians who don’t have a Last Will are under the age of 35. 

The study found the following interesting statistics on why Canadians don’t have Wills: 

  • Individuals in households with incomes below 100k are twice as likely to claim that they have no assets to leave behind, and therefore, less likely to create a Will 
  • One-in-eight Canadians who have Wills (13%) are out of date
  • Men and women are (almost) as equally likely to claim that they don’t have Wills
  • Canadians  in Manitoba (32%) and Saskatchewan (34%) are the least likely to have updated Wills
  • Two-thirds (63%) of Canadians surveyed in the lowest income households say they do not have a Will
  • 24% of Canadians surveyed claimed that they didn’t have a Will because they were too young to have one
  • The survey was conducted online from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2023
  • The survey sample was conducted among a randomized sample of 1,610 Canadian adults

The trickiest part of actually sitting down and doing a Will has to do with a lack of assets; with inflation rising the way it is right now, it’s no wonder that many people have put off creating a Will. But as we’ve seen time and time again, people tend to put off these important documents right BEFORE a trip, or before a surgery. It’s always good to re-evaluate your assets and what you want to have done. You can have your Will, Power of Attorney and Living Will done through FormalWill.ca. You can read more about the survey, here.

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