‘Don’t wait until you need it’: Canadians not prepared for estate planning

Erin Bury, co-founder and CEO of Willful, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss what to know about Canada's $1 trillion wealth transfer.

While it can be an uncomfortable conversation to have, many Canadians say estate planning is important, yet nearly half report having never discussed the topic with their financial advisor, according to a new survey released Monday.

Willful, an online estate planning platform, released the results of a survey revealing Canadians are unprepared for inheritances as more than $1 trillion is expected to transfer between generations in Canada over the next decade.

“This is largely because advisors are unprepared to talk about it,” Erin Bury, CEO and co-founder of Willful, told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview. “They’re not estate planning experts, and so they can struggle to bring up this, let’s admit it, uncomfortable topic”.

Over half of all respondents said they have a will, however, the survey found younger cohorts are often left out of the conversation. While 83 per cent of baby-boomers have end-of-life plans in place, just 29 per cent of millennials and 10 per cent of Gen Z do, leaving young generations more exposed as they juggle mortgages, children and debt without safeguards in place.

“It’s probably not top of your list when you’re in your twenties, but the whole point of end-of-life and estate planning is that the unexpected can happen any time and so this shows that across generations, not just younger Canadians, are putting these plans off,” said Bury.

Further, only 32 per cent of Canadians have power of attorney documents appointing someone to make decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated, and only 56 per cent of Canadians have life insurance.

“The key here is that you have to create these documents when you have the mental capacity,” said Bury. “It goes back to don’t wait until you need it. Do it before it’s needed, because if you lose capacity, it’s too late.”

The survey found many families are unprepared, as 41 per cent report never having a detailed conversation about end-of-life wishes and 62 per cent of Gen Z said they have no planning documents in place.

Many couples are also unprepared, according to the survey, as only 50 per cent of married Canadians say they’ve discussed their own end-of-life wishes and know their spouse’s or family’s.

But the demand for estate planning services is clear, as 59 per cent of millennials say they would be more likely to work with an advisor who offers free estate planning tools, and 39 per cent say it would make them more likely to consolidate more of their planning with that advisor.

“Most people creating a will are doing it for the first time,” said Bury. “The big gap is education, which is really what this report shows. People aren’t having the conversation with their own family members, they’re not having the conversation with advisors, and then it’s just a big mess for folks to clean up when someone passes away.”

Methodology

In August 2025, Willful and Angus Reid surveyed 1,000 Canadians about preparedness and family communication on end-of-life planning. Respondents included Canadians across generations, with breakout samples of parents with adult children and those who work with financial advisors.

For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of 1,000 carries a margin of error of approximately ±3.1percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

In partnership with MaRS, Willful also surveyed 40 financial advisors across Canada via UserTesting’s platform to understand how they engage with clients and their heirs during estate and succession planning.