Insight Law
By Demet Altunbulakli
Updated: May 21st, 2026
Beneficiaries in a Will: Roles, Rights, and Key Aspects
A beneficiary in a will is a person, organization, or charity that you name to receive money, property, or other assets from your estate after you die. In Ontario, wills and the rights of beneficiaries are governed mainly by the Succession Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.26 (the SLRA). The person who makes the will is the testator. The person who carries out the will is the estate trustee, often called the executor.
Beneficiaries sit at the centre of the whole plan, because the entire point of a will is to direct what each of them receives.
Half of Canadians have no will at all, and only about a third say they have one that is current, according to the Angus Reid Institute. Four in five adults under 35 have nothing in place. When you skip a will, the law picks your beneficiaries for you, and the result rarely matches what you would have chosen.
