Turn on a TV or radio today, and your senses are assaulted with obnoxious ads touting do-it-yourself will kits. A quick online search finds websites offering will kits for as little as $20. All you need to do is fill in the blanks and pick the clauses you want.

It all seems so easy for the estimated 50 percent of Canadians who don't have wills. But lawyers who practice will and estate law warn that do-it-yourself will kits, while cheap at the outset, can cost your estate and beneficiaries in the long run.

"They should be avoided at all costs," says Judith MacPherson, a lawyer at MacPherson Mitchell in Moncton, New Brunswick. "If you make a mistake in the will kit, it definitely will result in higher legal fees to resolve the problem."

Mona Brown, a lawyer at McCarthy Brown in Carman, Manitoba, adds that "you wouldn't try to do your own appendectomy or root canal. Something as important as a will needs to be done by a professional. The danger of a will kit is that wills are a provincial jurisdiction," and kits often overlook that there are different rules across the country.

Kits are deceptively simple

"What people don't understand is that the real value to seeing a good estate lawyer is not in the piece of paper that you sign at the end of the day," says Phil Renaud, a lawyer at Duncan & Craig LLP in Edmonton, who chairs the national wills, estates and trusts section of the Canadian Bar Association. "The real value is the discussion you have with an experienced estate planner."

Lawyers can help consumers properly structure their estate to limit the tax impact upon their death and guide them through the murky waters of estate law.

Kits, on the other hand, "don't have enough explanation to help you decide what to put in the blanks," says Renaud. As well, many people don't follow the instructions that come with them.

He says there are many intricate details as to how a will should be structured and executed in order for it to be valid. If you run afoul of those legal requirements, you run the risk of voiding your will.

For example, Renaud recently had a file involving someone who completed a will using a kit. However, the witness who signed the will was the spouse of a beneficiary, which made the bequest to that beneficiary void.

It isn't just lawyers who a wary of will kits -- many financial planners feel the same way. Adrian Mastracci, a fee-only financial planner at KCM Wealth Management in Vancouver, says "acting as your own legal counsel can be dangerous." He says that while kits provide a lot of information, "they are not tailored to the individual's situation. There is often something in everybody's situation that is not totally straight forward."

He's had clients who have brought in their homemade wills, and once he goes over how they want to divide their assets, he reviews the will with them and there is usually something that has been left out.

Mastracci says if the will is truly simple, such as if you leave everything to your wife, then a kit might suffice. But once kids are involved, it gets more complex. He says it's foolish to forego legal advice in the hope of saving a few bucks, because it will cost you more later to fix things.

Bequeathing gifts is trickier than it seems

Executing a will is only one area where things can go off the rails. Another problem people stumble over when trying to write their own will is in structuring the gifts they want to leave behind.

For example, a parent may have two children and want to leave them gifts of equal value, so they leave one child the house and the other the money in his RRSP. However, the RRSP proceeds are taxed in the estate, so the proceeds from the RRSP will be reduced, leaving one child with a greater share of the estate than the other.

A common mistake people make as they get older is converting their bank accounts into joint accounts with one of their children. Renaud says while they may intend to leave proceeds in the account to all their children, the person whose name the account is in may try to claim it all. "That's when the court battle starts, and nobody wins but the lawyers," he says.

Another tricky area is when someone with adult children remarries. That person usually wants to leave something to their kids or grandkids and to the current spouse. However, because the law entitles a spouse to half of the matrimonial property, unless the assets are properly divvied up in the will, there's a risk the new spouse could end up with all the assets while everyone else is left out in the cold.

People also get tripped up trying to avoid fees. While there are no inheritance taxes in Canada, the government charges fees for dealing with estates, known as probate fees. They are based on the size of the estate and, in some provinces, can be sizeable.
Renaud says people often take unwise steps to reduce probate fees, such as reducing the assets in the estate and designating beneficiaries to things like insurance policies and real property. If you designate someone to be the recipient of insurance proceeds or an RRSP, you can't then try to leave that money to someone else in your will.

As well, if you have obligations to a minor or disabled child or even a parent, your will must be structured to take them into consideration or it could be challenged in the court.

Consumers are wary of lawyers

Lawyers note that estate litigation is one of the fastest growing areas of the law and with $1 trillion in assets expected to pass from one generation to the next in the coming decades, wills are ripe for attack.

Brown says people avoid going to a lawyer to make a will because they think it's expensive. But lawyers say you can expect to pay a couple of hundred dollars for a basic will, which barely covers the lawyer's time. Brown says a will typically lasts 10 years before it needs to be reviewed and amended, which works out to about $20 a year.

MacPherson says one of the sticking points to making a will isn't cost, it's fear of death. "A lot of people tell me they won't make a will because they believe they will die if they make a will," she says.

Dying without a will means your estate gets divided according to estate succession laws set up in each province, which can lead to fights among family members over the assets and additional costs to the estate.

By using a lawyer to draft your will, Brown says "the chances of your will standing up (to scrutiny by a court challenge) are much greater." Brown adds that lawyers make meticulous notes, which can usually be accessed if a dispute arises. They also have checklists that they go through to help reduce the likelihood of a mistake.

Chances are a lawyer will also recommend that you consider a power of attorney, which allows someone to act on your behalf if you are suddenly incapacitated. You can establish health directives that set out how far you want doctors to go to keep you alive in the event of an accident or disease.

If you still aren't convinced to seek a lawyer, Brown says you are better off making what's known as a holographic will than using a will kit. A holographic will is written in your own handwriting, signed and dated. Make your wishes as clear as possible and avoid using legal language that you may not understand.

A holographic will isn't as trouble-proof as one written by a lawyer, but it will probably be better than whatever you get in a mass-marketed will kit.

NOTE: The information provided above is intended for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute advice for anyone's specific situation. Everyone should always first consult directly with their advisors to determine the appropriateness of any information contained above before taking any action. KCM Wealth Management Inc. assumes no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of, or reliance upon the above information.