Estate Planning Checklist for Yukon Residents: What to Do Now So Your Family Doesn't Have To Figure It Out Later

The best time to do estate planning was ten years ago. The second best time is now, while you have the capacity to make decisions and the people you love are not under the pressure of grief and urgency. Most Yukon residents underestimate how simple the foundational steps actually are — and how much harder they make things for their families by leaving them undone.

This is a practical checklist. Work through it in order.

1. Make a Will

This is the single most important document in your estate plan. A will appoints an executor to manage your estate, names beneficiaries for your assets, and — if you have minor children — names a guardian to care for them. Without a will, Yukon's intestacy rules decide who gets what, and those rules do not know about your relationships, your wishes, or the particular needs of particular people.

Your options in Yukon:

Formal will: In writing, signed by you at the end, witnessed by two people who are not beneficiaries (and not married to or in a common-law relationship with beneficiaries). A lawyer can draft this for a few hundred dollars. It is clearer, less likely to be contested, and generally the better choice.

Holograph will: Entirely handwritten in your own hand, signed by you. No witnesses required. Valid under the Wills Act in Yukon. Faster and cheaper, but more likely to be ambiguous or incomplete. Adequate as a stopgap; not a long-term solution.

If you already have a will, check when it was last reviewed. Marriage revokes a prior will under Yukon law. Major life changes — having children, divorcing, significant changes in your assets — are all reasons to update.

2. Appoint an Enduring Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney gives someone else legal authority to manage your finances on your behalf. An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPOA) specifically remains valid if you lose mental capacity — which is exactly when you need it.

A regular Power of Attorney ceases to operate if you become incapacitated. An Enduring Power of Attorney under the Yukon Powers of Attorney Act continues in effect (or takes effect only on incapacity, depending on how you draft it).

What an EPOA covers: Banking, investment decisions, paying bills, managing property, filing taxes — anything financial. It is the document that lets someone step in and keep your affairs in order if you have a stroke, develop dementia, or are otherwise unable to manage yourself.

What it does not cover: Health care decisions. That requires an Advance Directive.

Important: A Power of Attorney of any kind expires on the death of the person who made it. It is only for while you are alive. Once you die, the executor takes over and the EPOA is no longer relevant.

Appoint someone you trust deeply for financial matters. This person will have significant power. Think carefully.

3. Make an Advance Directive

An Advance Directive (sometimes called a Health Care Directive) sets out your wishes for medical treatment if you become unable to communicate your own decisions. In Yukon, this is governed by the Care Consent Act.

You can use an Advance Directive to:

• State whether you want life-sustaining treatment in specified circumstances
• Refuse certain treatments
• Name a Substitute Decision-Maker who can make health care decisions on your behalf

Without an Advance Directive, health care decisions for an incapacitated person fall to the next of kin in a statutory priority order, who may not know what you would have wanted and who may not agree with each other.

4. Name a Guardian for Minor Children in Your Will

If you have children under 19 (the age of majority in Yukon), your will is the document where you name who you want to raise them if both parents die. The will cannot bind the court — a judge always has the final say on what is in a child's best interests — but a named guardian in a will carries significant weight and gives the court a clear statement of the parents' wishes.

If you and your partner have different preferences for who should be guardian, talk about it. A unified decision in both wills is more effective than conflicting appointments.

5. Review Beneficiary Designations

Many assets pass outside your will through beneficiary designations. These are not subject to probate and do not go through the estate distribution process. They go directly to whoever is named.

Assets with beneficiary designations include:

• RRSPs and RRIFs
• TFSAs
• Life insurance policies
• Defined contribution pension plans (many, not all)

The designation on file with the financial institution governs, regardless of what your will says. If your will leaves everything to your current spouse but your RRSP still has your ex-spouse named as beneficiary from ten years ago, the ex-spouse gets the RRSP. Courts have very limited ability to override a valid beneficiary designation.

Review your beneficiary designations:

• Are they current?
• Do they name a contingent beneficiary (in case the primary beneficiary predeceases you)?
• For TFSAs: does a spouse have "successor holder" status rather than just "beneficiary"? Successor holder status means the TFSA continues on a tax-sheltered basis for the survivor. A beneficiary designation (even a spouse) causes the TFSA's tax shelter to end at death.

6. Consider Joint Tenancy for Real Property

Real property (land and houses) held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship does not pass through the estate when one joint tenant dies. It passes automatically to the surviving joint tenant outside of probate, regardless of what the will says.

This can be useful in some situations. In Yukon specifically, however, the calculation is different from most other provinces.

Yukon's probate fee is $140 flat, regardless of estate size. In British Columbia, Ontario, or Alberta, probate fees are calculated as a percentage of estate value and can run into the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for large estates. In those provinces, avoiding probate through joint tenancy or other structures can produce significant savings.

In Yukon, the $140 flat fee means that probate avoidance offers very little financial benefit. The decision about whether to hold property as joint tenants should be based on your actual planning needs — particularly who you want the property to go to, and whether there are estate equalization issues with other beneficiaries — rather than on avoiding a fee that is barely a rounding error.

Joint tenancy does have a significant downside: once property is put into joint tenancy, both parties own it equally and both must consent to selling. If the relationship breaks down or circumstances change, undoing a joint tenancy can be complicated.

7. Organize Your Documents

Your executor needs to be able to find what you have. This sounds obvious, but it is frequently the source of significant wasted time and money after a death.

Create a document that lists:

• Where your will is kept (the original, not a copy)
• Your EPOA and Advance Directive
• All bank accounts and financial institutions, with account numbers
• All investment accounts, including RRSPs, TFSAs, pensions, and non-registered accounts
• Life insurance policies with policy numbers and insurance company contact information
• Real property and any mortgages
• All debts: credit cards, loans, lines of credit
• Subscriptions and recurring payments
• Online accounts and passwords (or where to find them)
• Location of birth certificate, SIN card, passport, health card

Keep this document somewhere your executor can actually find it. A safe in your home is appropriate for the will and other originals.

Do not put your will in a safety deposit box at a bank. When someone dies, banks are required to seal safety deposit boxes. The executor may need a court order to access a sealed box — which means they need to apply for probate before they can access the will, which is backwards. Keep the original will somewhere accessible.

8. Tell Your Executor

Naming an executor in your will is not enough. Tell the person you have named. Confirm they are willing to take on the role. Give them a general sense of your estate — not necessarily dollar amounts, but the nature of what they will be managing. Tell them where to find your will.

An executor who learns about their appointment for the first time at the reading of the will is starting from a significant disadvantage.

Estate planning in Yukon is genuinely straightforward for most people. The will, the EPOA, and the Advance Directive are the core documents. Reviewing beneficiary designations takes an hour and costs nothing. Organizing your documents is a weekend afternoon. The cost of not doing these things falls almost entirely on the people you love.

If you are dealing with an estate where planning was incomplete — no will, outdated designations, unclear assets — the When Someone Dies in Yukon — Estate Settlement Guide explains the process for settling an estate under these circumstances, including the probate process, dealing with intestacy, and what the executor needs to do at each stage.

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