Your Three Options, Priced
Every Ontario will is made one of three ways. Each is legal. They differ in what stands behind the document.
| Option | What You Get | Typical Cost |
|---|---|---|
| DIY will kit | A fill-in-the-blank form. No guidance, no review, no advice. Validity depends entirely on you executing it correctly. | $20–$60 |
| Online will platform | A template assembled from your questionnaire answers (e.g., Willful $129–$349; Epilogue $139–$199). Fast and inexpensive; no lawyer reviews your answers or flags what the questionnaire didn't ask. | $130–$350 |
| Lawyer-drafted will | A lawyer takes instructions, advises on your specific family and assets, drafts, and supervises signing. Canadian Lawyer magazine's legal fees surveys have put the average for a simple will in the $500–$625 range; complex estates run $1,000+. | $400–$1,500+ |
Third-party prices as published by those providers in 2026 and subject to change; survey figures from Canadian Lawyer's national legal fees surveys.
What We Charge
Flat fees, agreed in a written retainer before any work begins. No hourly meter for standard estate planning.
| Service | Includes | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Essential Will | Lawyer-drafted last will and testament — instructions, advice, drafting, supervised execution | From $400 + HST |
| Complete Package | Will + Power of Attorney for Property + Power of Attorney for Personal Care | $500 + HST / person |
| Couples Package | Two mirror wills + four powers of attorney | $900 + HST |
| Mutual Wills Contract (optional add-on) | Binding agreement that neither spouse changes the estate plan after the first death | $250 + HST |
For two people, the Couples Package works out to $450 each for a will and both powers of attorney — below the surveyed average for a simple will alone. Complex estates (trusts for disabled beneficiaries, business succession, foreign assets, estrangement risk) are quoted before work begins, at $300 + HST per hour or a fixed quote where the scope is clear.
When an Online Will Is Enough — and When It Isn't
An online will can serve a person with a simple situation: one marriage, adult independent children or none, assets in Ontario, everything to the spouse then the kids. If that is you, the platforms do what they say.
The difficulty is that the situations where a will matters most are exactly the ones a questionnaire handles worst. A lawyer is trained to ask what the form cannot:
Blended families
A second marriage with children from the first is the single most common source of estate litigation. Mirror wills, mutual wills contracts, and life-interest structures exist for this — templates don't raise the issue.
Common-law partners
Ontario intestacy law gives a common-law partner nothing automatically. If you are common-law and your will fails or misses assets, your partner may need to sue your estate. Getting this right is not optional.
Minor children
Guardianship appointments, trusts that hold a child's inheritance past age 18, and who manages the money in the meantime — these clauses need to be drafted for your family, not selected from a menu.
Execution errors
Ontario requires strict signing formalities — two witnesses, present together, neither a beneficiary or a beneficiary's spouse. A perfectly drafted will signed wrong can fail in whole or in part. Lawyer-supervised execution removes that risk.
The Most Expensive Option: No Will
If you die without a will in Ontario, the Succession Law Reform Act writes one for you. A married spouse receives the first $350,000 of the estate — the "preferential share" for deaths on or after March 1, 2021 — plus a fraction of the remainder; your children split the rest, receiving their shares outright at 18. A common-law partner, however long you were together, inherits nothing automatically. No guardian of your choosing is named for minor children. Someone must apply to the court to be appointed estate trustee before anything moves at all — added cost, added months, at the worst possible time.
Probate itself is a separate cost with or without a will: Ontario's Estate Administration Tax is $0 on the first $50,000 of estate value and $15 per $1,000 — 1.5% — above that. A will does not eliminate that tax, but planned properly it can reduce what flows through the estate, and it eliminates the intestacy application entirely.
How It Works at Oathstone Law
Free 30-Minute Consultation
We talk through your family, assets, and wishes. You get a fixed, written quote before anything starts.
Drafting & Review
We draft, you review. Changes are part of the fee, not extras.
Signing
Supervised execution with proper witnesses at our Markham office — done right the first time, with copies stored and originals returned to you.