Islamic Wills in Nunavut

Making an Islamic will that works in Nunavut

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

Handwritten wills: Valid, and materially more generous than the plain 'wholly handwritten' rule most provinces use. Nunavut's own 2005 amendment defines a will's 'own writing' to include "handwriting, footwriting, mouthwriting or writing of a similar kind" (an explicit disability accommodation not found in Northwest Territories law or, so far, in any other jurisdiction checked in this pass). It also validates a will that is only PARTLY in the testator's own writing and partly printed/typewritten/other written form — without witnesses — as long as it appears the testator intended to incorporate the printed words and the testator signed it. This is broader than a strict wholly-handwritten holograph rule.

Probate: A capped, flat-band fee schedule, structurally identical to the Northwest Territories' but with its own (slightly lower) top figure: $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 $425 for every estate over $250,000, regardless of size.

If you die without a will in Nunavut

$50,000, per the last primary text this pass could verify — NOT $100,000 (the Northwest Territories' current figure). Nunavut's Intestate Succession Act was carried forward from the pre-1999 NWT statute at $50,000 and, unlike the NWT, was NOT part of the 2015 NWT amendment that raised the NWT figure to $100,000 (that amendment was made after the two territories separated and has no application in Nunavut). Mechanically it otherwise mirrors NWT's older structure: below $50,000 the spouse takes everything; above it, the spouse takes $50,000 (with interest) plus a home-election right, then shares the residue with issue (1/2 with one child, 1/3 with more than one).

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

Can the will be challenged?

Dependants Relief Act claims — Nunavut's own consolidation of the Act (distinct from the Northwest Territories', though built on the same base), current to 31 May 2024. "Dependant" means: the surviving spouse (defined in the Act itself as married, OR cohabiting for 2+ years, OR cohabiting in a relationship of some permanence with a child together — no cross-reference to a separate Family Law Act, unlike NWT); a child under 19; a child 19 or over unable to earn a livelihood because of disability; a person who cohabited with the deceased for at least 1 year immediately before death and was financially dependent on them; or a person acting as a foster parent of the deceased's children in the household who was financially dependent on the deceased. As in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and PEI, an independent, able-bodied adult child has NO claim under this Act.

Challenging a will in Nunavut ›

Finding a will in Nunavut

No central government will registry.

How to search for a will in Nunavut ›

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.