When you realize that a whopping 51 percent of Canadian adults haven’t prepared their last will and testament, you can empathize with them. Prepare a will has a tone of finality; it’s just plain uncomfortable to prepare a document that reminds you of your mortality.
Besides the discomfort of this situation, there are a few other reasons why 1 in 2 Canadian adults don’t have a will. Firstly, preparing a will is not a simple process. Depending on many factors, chief among which is your unique estate situation, drafting your will can be a very complex process.
Add to that the fact that lawyers with the required expertise typically charge considerable sums of money to do this for you: we’re talking $1,000 and up. And when you think about it, who wants to spend that kind of money to prepare a document that essentially reveals everything they have left?
Fortunately, the trend towards online solutions has also caught up with this problem. Like digital banks and online tax filing companies, Willful is one of many online solutions helping today’s Canadians prepare their final will and testament. And again, in line with the trend of online solutions, Willful simplifies the process and makes it wallet-friendly too; starting as low as $99. Plus, preparation takes much less time.
Documents prepared by Willful and other online will companies are just as legitimate as their offline alternatives. Ultimately, whether you’re 20 or 8, you want your assets and your entire estate to go to those you believe deserve it; a last will and testament just helps you make sure it happens exactly that way, instead of everything you own going to the state or some other irrelevant body.
This review will detail everything there is to know about the Willful platform and what it offers. As always, after reading this you decide if this is what you want for yourself.
Willful is a mission-driven Fintech company
Created in 2017, Willful was actually born out of personal pain. After Kevin Oulds lost a close family member who had not written a funeral wish or end-of-life planning document, it sparked the idea for Willful. Oulds launched the company with a mission to automate and modernize the end-of-life planning process for Canadians. The business continued to grow.
Its services were previously only available in Ontario, but the company has expanded to other provinces such as Nova Scotia, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.
Willful’s process is made easier thanks to its online will templates which have been developed by lawyers with extensive experience in the field of inheritance law. So, to prepare a will with Willful, all you need to do is create an account on their website, fill out a targeted online questionnaire, and wait while they prepare your will for printing and signing.
The entire process can take as little as 20 minutes. This is the company’s main selling point: they break down the process of preparing a will and last will and testament in the simplest, simplest form possible.
How much does Willful cost?
Depending on the size and complexity of your estate, Willful’s services cost between $99 and $249.
Willful offers three price/service levels:
1. The essentials
This is the fundamental pricing level. All the fundamental elements that every will needs are provided with this plan.
The Essentials plan allows you to detail your last wishes, choose your personal representative and your estate beneficiaries, name your children’s guardians, specify the distribution of your estate and plan your children’s inheritance.
However, with this plan, you only get one document: your will. It costs $99, which is at least $200 less than you would pay if you consulted a real lawyer.
2. Bonus
This plan is Willful’s most popular. Like most other online service pricing tiers, Premium contains all the features of The Essentials and more. These additional benefits/features include the ability to trigger a power of attorney for your property and finances in the event of an emergency.
With the Premium plan, you can also plan ahead for medical emergencies. This plan is priced at $149 and is especially ideal for cases where you don’t have a partner or want to select a beneficiary who is not your partner.
According to Willful’s calculations, this plan saves you at least $450 compared to hiring a lawyer for the exact same legal needs.
So, once you have finished preparing your will with the premium plan, you will receive three documents:
- A Last Will and Testament
- A power of attorney for emergencies (finances and property)
- A representative of medical emergencies and their wishes
3. Couples (mirrored)
This plan would cost a minimum of $1,100 with a traditional probate attorney. However, with Willful, you will only have to pay $249. As the name suggests, this is the ideal option for couples who want to prepare two separate wills in one account. Here you are entitled to anything and everything in the Essentials and Premium plans.
In addition, your wishes can also be reflected (reflected) in your partner’s documents. Upon completion of will preparation with this plan, you receive two copies of the three Premium Plan documents, one copy of each document for you and your partner. Note that this plan also costs $50 less than the two Premium plan option.
There are no hidden fees or extra charges with Willful. All you see is all you will need to pay for their services.
What sets Willful apart?
Willful is certainly one of the cheapest online legal will providers in the country, but many Canadians consider more than cost.
So what else sets them apart from the competition?
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Simple, all-inclusive pricing: Willful offers no add-ons, no upsells, no discounts or coupons. Everything you will need to pay is included in their three-tier payment prices.
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Simple yet modern design and superior user experience: You can say that Willful is to online will creation what Turbo Tax is to online taxes. Its interface is user-friendly and intuitive.
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Free, unlimited updates and changes to your will: Until you die, your will is never set in stone. With each significant event or change in your life, you may need to add or remove something from your will. Willful lets you do this as many times as you need, at no extra cost.
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A Robust Resource Center: To ensure that none of its clients ever have to go blind to a will preparation process, Willful offers a robust and free resource center on its website. There is enough information to guide everyone through everything they need to know about estate planning.
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Top-notch customer service: Many users of the platform have praised Willful for its customer service efforts. They often interact with their customers through their online chat feature and they tend to respond quite quickly.
Legal wills vs. Deliberate
The simple answer would be yes, it’s worth taking a look. But before you do that, there are a few things you should note. First, Willful is not the cheapest online legal will provider in Canada. Its closest competitor, Legalwills, offers you a basic will starting at $39, with couples planning to top out at $144. However, their pricing system is much more tiered and seems more conditional with too many pricing conditions that make Willful feel more comfortable.
Additionally, Legalwills is available across Canada, while Willful is not there yet. However, over the past year, they have increased from three to seven provinces. That’s huge growth in such a short period of time.
But for now, if you don’t live in any of the supported provinces, you may need to opt for another online will provider. Plus, if price is your deciding factor, Willful may not be for you either.
However, if you want an established and reliable will provider with a simple payment structure, faster processing, convenient use and top-notch customer support, then Willful is worth it.
Keep in mind that online legal will providers are not equipped to handle end-of-life planning for extremely complex estates (such as when the subject owns various properties and financial assets in foreign countries that have different laws and policies). In such cases, you may need to take the traditional route and hire an attorney who is an expert in inheritance law.
Last words
So there you have it, that was my honest review of Willful. If you are looking to create a legal will, for any reason in Canada, check out their website. The services offered are ultra-premium and easily affordable for you and me.
There is something in store for everyone at Willful, that’s the best part I love about my Willful review here.
I hope you liked the content here and found it useful. If you liked it, share it on social media and help spread the word. As always, let me know your thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading, goodbye now!
