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You can leave your property to anyone you want. You can decide to give it to family, friends, charity or anyone else you want.
You can decide that you want to give certain things to named individuals. A Will might say something like:
To my brother John Brown, I leave my entire stamp collection or To my only daughter, Sarah Brown, I leave my cabin located at Sandy Shores, Saskatchewan.
You can decide to give a general gift, not a particular item, to a named individual. A Will might say something like:
I leave $1,000 to my grandson Joseph Daniels.
Many Wills include both specific and general gifts. It is important to describe specific gifts so that they can be easily identified. If the specific gift no longer exists at the time of your death the person will not receive anything in its place.
You can also divide your estate between certain people without saying who gets what. A Will might say something like:
I direct that ½ of my estate be given to my spouse, Pat Green, and the remaining ½ portion of my estate to be divided equally between my children, Robin, Dale and Toby.
The property remaining after specific and general items are distributed is called the residue. Depending on the terms of your Will there may not be a residue. However, whether you think there will be one or not it is important to include a residue clause. If you do not include a residue clause in your Will, and there is property not dealt with in your Will, that property will be treated as if you died without a Will. The rules for distributing an estate when there is no Will are discussed more fully here.
Some property, such as benefits under an insurance policy or Registered Retirement Savings Plans, may be given to a named beneficiary and not dealt with in your Will. Your Executor or Administrator is not responsible for dealing with this property and no estate fees attach to it. However, there can still be tax consequences to the estate if an RRSP is left to someone other than a spouse or dependant. In these cases the full amount of the RRSP is considered income to the estate and taxes must be paid on it.
For more information about taxes that must be paid by the estate see Debts & Liabilities of the Estate.
Joint property with the right of survivorship also does not form part of your estate. Joint property is property, such as bank accounts and land, owned by two or more people. Generally joint property includes the right of survivorship, meaning that when one joint owner dies, the ownership of the property passes to the surviving joint owner or owners. Joint property with the right of survivorship cannot be disposed of under a Will.
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