Advertisement
In this excerpt from Wealthier, authors Daniel R. Solin and Mark McGrath offer practical tips on estate and financial planning for Canadian Millennials.
Dying intestate is a term that means someone has died without a will. Dying without a will means that the government gets to use provincial laws to decide how to distribute your estate and appoint your executor.
—Willful.co, “Dying Without A Will In Canada.”
In 2013, my father took his own life.
He was a successful small business owner and was financially responsible and savvy. But he was also very private with his money; even my mother wasn’t sure where his various accounts were held. It took dozens of phone calls, hundreds of emails, and several in-person visits to different bank branches to locate and administer all his accounts.
Thankfully, his last will and testament were current, clear, and drafted by professional estate lawyers. Settling an estate is a demanding emotional and physical task, but having a valid and current will make things that much easier for us.
Estate planning is a simple task for DIY financial planners, but finding the willpower (pun intended) to take the first step can be difficult. Like life insurance, estate planning is a way to protect and care for your loved ones. But it’s hard to face the reality, especially when you’re young and it feels far off.
If you die without a will, known as dying intestate, the distribution of your assets will be subject to provincial laws and regulations.
No one wants the Government to determine where their assets go when they die. Yet less than one-third of Canadians say they have an estate plan, and less than half have a will.
If you are male and your partner is a woman, she will likely outlive you. Approximately 77% of Canadians who are widowed are women. This isn’t surprising because women tend to outlive men and often marry older men. The average age of widows is only 56.
There’s evidence that the inability to confront our mortality has a basis in neuroscience.
Researcher Yair Dor-Ziderman at Bar Ilan University in Israel, together with his colleagues, conducted a study on this subject and found, “The brain does not accept that death is related to us. We have this primal mechanism that means when the brain gets information that links self to death, something tells us it’s not reliable, so we shouldn’t believe it.”
My advice: Believe it, and make a plan.
Search our directory of credentialled advisors providing financial and investing services across Canada.
Estate planning for most DIY financial planners is relatively easy.
Start by completing (or updating) the beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts and insurance policies.
Ensure your spouse, partner, and executor know where your assets are held and who to contact.
Consider using a password manager for email and social media profiles so they can be accessed and deleted if necessary. If you have digital assets like cryptocurrency, you need a plan allowing your executor to access those assets.
Family law and estate planning rules differ by province. You should retain a qualified estate lawyer in your province of residence.
If using an attorney in your province of residence is outside your budget, there are cost-effective online resources that will prepare a will for you. Before using these services, you should be aware of their limitations:
Finding the “willpower” to initiate and update the process periodically can be difficult.
Perhaps it will be easier now that you understand how your brain resists confronting the reality of your inevitable death.
Overcome your brain’s resistance to confronting your mortality by implementing an estate plan to provide for your loved ones.
“It’s not an every ten years thing, you have to review it on a regular basis… the more moving parts there are, the more it needs to occur.”
—Morgan Ulmer, CFP, “How often should financial planning be done to be most effective?” The Globe and Mail
A financial plan is like using GPS to get to a destination. You rely on the GPS, which is constantly updated to account for detours and other changes.
Your financial plan isn’t static. It has to change when your goals or personal financial situation change, and it also has to adapt to economic and market conditions.
You should review your financial plan at least annually to ensure it remains aligned with your current situation. If your financial situation changes rapidly, you may need to review it more frequently.
An annual financial plan review should include any changes in your situation, investment portfolio, tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning, and insurance coverage (especially life and disability insurance).
Here are some triggers for an update.
Revisiting your financial plan should rank high on your to-do list, but chores, like going to the dentist, budgeting, and doing housework, cause us to procrastinate.
According to Joseph Ferrari, an author and expert on procrastination, about 20% of all adults are chronic procrastinators. To put this number in context, he notes, “That’s higher than depression, higher than phobia, higher than panic attacks and alcoholism.”
Other research suggests that 95% of us procrastinate to some degree.
If you procrastinate and fail to update your financial plan regularly, you may not reach your short- or long-term goals.
Procrastination can also lead to adverse health consequences due to higher stress and less attention to wellness.
To stop procrastinating, it helps to know the root cause of your hesitation.
Procrastination can be rooted in a fear of performing the task poorly, being disorganized, or even having attention deficit disorder. A common cause of procrastination is perfectionism. Perfectionists fear failure, making mistakes, or disapproval.
Another cause of procrastination is a lack of organization caused by the mistaken belief that we don’t need to do the task at hand because we have a superior memory and don’t need to memorialize important events.
Here are some tips that will help you overcome your tendency to procrastinate.
Commit to updating your financial plan regularly by understanding and addressing the reasons you procrastinate.
Excerpted from Wealthier: The Investing Field Guide for Canadian Millennials by Mark McGrath and Daniel R. Solin. Copyright 2025. Reprinted with permission.
Mark McGrath is a financial planner and associate portfolio manager at PWL Capital Inc. Daniel R. Solin is the New York Times bestselling author of the Smartest series of books.
Share this article Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linkedin Share on Reddit Share on Email
First-time home buyers in Canada can pull from savings in registered accounts to fund their down payment. Here’s how...
Which ETFs should you invest in? Which ones best suit your risk tolerance? What about personal ethics? Check out...
Swedish death cleaning is catching on in Canada. Learn how it can help you save money, simplify estate planning...
To minimize taxes and maximize benefits, learn the difference between deductions, credits and other forms of tax relief by...
Use the mortgage rate finder to compare the most current mortgage rates from the big banks and brokers instantly.
The federal government has made a last-minute change to its capital gains inclusion rate increase. However, other tax changes...
Ottawa defers effective date of capital gains changes to 2026 and promises exemptions for the tax inclusion increase.
If you’re looking for extra income to keep up with the rising cost of living, look no further than...
Canadians don’t expect much from their chequing accounts. But we’ve scouted out options that offer surprising features, from breaks...
