In Ontario, a Will (other than a holograph Will), must be in writing and signed by the testator at the end and in the presence of two witnesses who must also sign the Will in the presence of a testator and in the presence of
each other. You need two witnesses. You all need to witness each other sign.
A testator would use his customary signature to sign the Will. A witness should not be a beneficiary or the spouse of a beneficiary. This is why at Haber and Associates, we use lawyers as witnesses instead of any of your family members. If a witness is a beneficiary or a spouse of a beneficiary, the gift to that beneficiary may be invalid even though the execution of the Will is valid. If you get into this mess, in order to prove that a gift to a witness or a spouse of a witness is valid, an application would have to be made to the Superior Court of Justice to ensure there was no undue influence to the testator.
An executor or a spouse of an executor may act as a witness so long as neither of them are beneficiaries. It is preferable to have an Affidavit of Execution completed immediately after the Will is signed. This averts problems if the witnesses can’t be located and would perhaps avoid the necessity of proving the Will. We then normally execute one copy and make several true copies of the Will and keep the original of the Will in our solicitors vault.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Matt Lalande or Ryan Carson at Haber and Associates.