Willful Launches Online Will Platform to Give Canadian Families Peace of Mind
Toronto (PRWEB) October 26, 2017 -- There are over 260,000 deaths in Canada each year, yet a recent Law Pro study found that 56% of Canadian adults don’t have a legal will outlining their final wishes and estate plans. Today Toronto-based Willful launches to provide Canadians with a credible, comprehensive, online end-of-life planning service. With Willful, users can create legally-binding documents in less than twenty minutes, avoiding sit-down meetings with lawyers and expensive legal fees. Willful currently offers three products in Ontario: wills, power of attorney for personal care (living wills), and power of attorney for property, and each can be created online in a fraction of the time, and for a fraction of the traditional price.
“A surprisingly large percentage of the population hasn’t planned for the end of their lives, even after they buy property and have children,” said Kevin Oulds, CEO and founder of Willful. “The majority of Canadian adults don't have a will, which leaves families unprepared in the case of a death, whether it’s expected or not. We created Willful with families in mind, and designed it to be simple and straightforward so that planning for the future doesn’t have to be a pain.”
Willful was founded as an alternative to traditional estate planning, and it allows customers to make end-of-life arrangements quickly and easily. Customers are guided through entering basic information including their name and date of birth, as well as the names of their beneficiaries. When the customer is finished filling out details about property, gifts, and beneficiaries, Willful generates a document (or documents depending on the package selected) and provides instructions for how to make it legally binding by having it signed in the presence of two witnesses. Willful offers three packages, starting at $99 CAD for an individual will and going up to $250 CAD for a mirrored will for couples. The company also allows for unlimited edits to each document, saving users even more time and money in the future.
Willful worked with three estates lawyers with a combined 30 years of experience to develop the documents necessary to create legal wills in Ontario. Oulds is currently in talks with additional estate lawyers to expand Willful’s offerings to the remainder of the country, beginning with Alberta and British Columbia.
“I’ve guided countless people through the creation of their Last Will and Testament,” said Hala Tabl, a Wills and Estates lawyer based in Ottawa who also runs Ontario-Probate, and is one of Willful’s three legal advisors. “Potential clients often tell me that their greatest barrier when it comes to creating a will is the cost and time. Since Willful takes a great deal of the labour out of this process, they’re able to drastically cut costs making it a cost-effective, simple alternative for people who have budgetary or time constraints.”
Oulds was inspired to start Willful following the sudden passing of a close family member, and several close encounters with death himself. He realized that he had nothing prepared in the case of his own accidental passing, and after discussing this with other people his age, he found that most young adults don’t have wills, citing the time involved, high costs, and complicated legal jargon as the main barriers.
“We already do our banking online, invest online, and take care of other legal processes online,” Oulds went on to say. “It's time there was a beautiful, user-friendly site targeted to millennials who are going through major life events and need to ensure their family is taken care of."
To learn more about Willful, visit willful.co
About Willful
Willful is an online platform that makes it affordable, convenient, and easy for Canadians to create a legal will online. The platform provides simplified estate planning services (creation of a Legal Will, Power of Attorney for Personal Care, and Power of Attorney for property), enabling consumers to create a will and/or power of attorney by following a clear step-by-step process. Willful’s platform was developed in collaboration with leading estate lawyers, with pricing plans starting at $99. Willful is based in Toronto, and it is currently available to residents of Ontario, with plans to expand across Canada.
Jamie Gillingham, Eighty-Eight, http://eightyeightagency.com, +1 (416) 460-1668, [email protected]
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