Islamic Wills in Northwest Territories

Making an Islamic will that works in Northwest Territories

An Islamic will is not a separate legal instrument. It is an ordinary Northwest Territories will whose distribution clauses set out the faraid shares. Two things have to be right at once: the fractions, and Northwest Territories’s formalities.

Handwritten wills: Valid

Probate: A capped, flat-band fee schedule with no percentage component at any estate size: $30 for estates of $10,000 or less; $110 for estates over $10,000 up to $25,000; $215 for estates over $25,000 up to $125,000; $325 for estates over $125,000 up to $250,000; and a flat $435 for every estate over $250,000, no matter how large. A $30 million estate and a $300,000 estate pay the same $435. This makes NWT one of the cheapest probate jurisdictions in Canada for a large estate, alongside Alberta's capped $525.

If you die without a will in Northwest Territories

$100,000, updated in 2015 (more recent than most of the preferential-share figures checked so far). Where an intestate leaves a spouse and issue and the net estate does not exceed $100,000, the spouse takes everything. Above that, the spouse takes $100,000 (with a charge for legal interest from the date of death) and then shares the residue with the children — one-half with one child, one-third with more than one child. The surviving spouse may elect to take the family home instead of the $100,000 (if the home is worth more) or as part of it (if worth less). Where there is a spouse and no issue, the spouse takes the whole estate. "Spouse" is defined by cross-reference to the Family Law Act, which includes a common-law partner after 2 years of cohabitation (or sooner if the couple have a child together) — so, unlike Ontario, Nova Scotia or PEI, an unmarried partner can inherit this preferential share.

That distribution is set by statute and it will not match the faraid shares. How Northwest Territories’s intestacy rules diverge from faraid ›

Can the will be challenged?

Dependants Relief Act claims. "Dependant" means: the surviving spouse; a child under 19; a child 19 or over who cannot earn a livelihood because of mental or physical disability; a common-law partner who cohabited with the deceased for at least 1 year before death and was financially dependent on them; a cohabiting partner at the time of death with whom the deceased had a child together (no minimum duration in that case); or a person who was acting as a foster parent of the deceased's children in the household and was financially dependent on the deceased. As in Prince Edward Island and Yukon, an independent, able-bodied adult child has NO claim under this Act.

Challenging a will in Northwest Territories ›

Finding a will in Northwest Territories

No central government will registry.

How to search for a will in Northwest Territories ›

The fixed shares

The fractions come from Surah an-Nisa and do not vary by province. Calculate them for your family, or read where the four schools differ.