Estate planning for new parents
A new baby is the strongest trigger for a first will. The four decisions that matter — guardian, trustee, inheritance age, life insurance beneficiary — in one evening's work.
Most Canadians write their first will within a year of their first child — grim arithmetic finally beats procrastination. The good news: a new-parent estate plan is four decisions, and you already have opinions about all of them.
Decision 1: the guardian
Who raises them if both of you are gone. The values-capacity-disruption framework, backups, and the ask-them-first rule are covered in naming a guardian — the summary is: values first, honesty about your parents’ age, and never spring it on anyone at a funeral.
If your provinces differ (BC allows a standby guardian for incapacity; Ontario’s appointment runs 90 days pending court confirmation), your generated will handles the local mechanics.
Decision 2: the trustee and the age
A minor cannot inherit outright — without instructions, the money is paid into court and released in full at 18 or 19. Your will names a trustee to manage the fund and an age (21 and 25 are the common picks) for payout, with the trustee able to spend on the child’s needs in the meantime. The whole structure.
Guardian and trustee can be the same person; for large sums, splitting adds oversight.
Decision 3: where the life insurance points
New parents usually buy term life at the same time as the will — good. Now aim it. Naming your spouse directly is clean. For the contingency where both of you die, naming minor children directly on the policy recreates the court-holds-the-money problem outside your will’s trust. The standard fix: name your spouse primary, and the estate or the will’s trustee as contingent, so the money lands inside the trust your will just built. Insurance through work counts too — check the group policy’s designation.
Decision 4: the RESP
An RESP is your property, not the child’s — on your death it does not automatically survive for their education. Our questionnaire asks about RESPs and can direct your executor to keep the plan open with a successor subscriber, preserving the grants. Without that clause, the plan may collapse, grants return to the government, and growth is taxed.
The evening itself
Both parents each make a will (Canada has no joint wills — mirror wills are the couple’s pattern), name each other, align the guardian and trustee choices, set the age, fix the designations. Two questionnaires, about forty-five minutes total, $15 each right now — read them in full before paying. Then go to bed; you have a baby.
- Children's Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c C.12, s 61
- Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c 1 (5th Supp) (RESP provisions)
Checked against source on August 4, 2026. Legislation changes — if you are relying on a figure here for a decision, verify it against the statute. This is general information, not legal advice about your situation.