Why Your Will Might Not Even Matter

Most people think their Will controls everything.
It doesn’t.

Your Will only controls the assets that pass through your estate.
And a lot of what you own may never get there.

Joint accounts.
Real estate held with survivorship.
Life insurance or RRSPs with named beneficiaries.
Digital assets tucked behind passwords or overseas platforms. See 5 Digital Assets That Can Screw Up Your Estate Plan →

If these don’t funnel through your estate, your Will won't touch them.
Which means your carefully chosen executor doesn’t control them.
Your thoughtful equal split doesn’t apply to them.
And your family might be left wondering how something so important got left out entirely.

Worse, the estate can end up paying the tax on assets it never received, while the beneficiary walks away with the full value.
That’s not just a paperwork gap. That’s a fairness problem—and a source of resentment that’s hard to fix after the fact.

Estate planning isn’t about just making a Will.
It’s about knowing how your assets pass—and building a structure that holds.

This isn’t a technical oversight. It’s where plans often fail.

Estate planning isn’t about just making a Will.
It’s about knowing how your assets pass—and building a structure that holds.

If your Will feels complete, but your structure doesn’t match it, that’s not a plan. That’s a false sense of security.

If you want a plan where the pieces actually work together, book a call →

This site shares real-world insights from my work as an estate planning lawyer. It’s not legal advice, I'm not your lawyer, and it won’t cover every situation. But it will show you what tends to go wrong—and what usually holds up.