Is a Photocopy of Your Will Good Enough? What Ontario Law Says

Many of us keep scanned copies of important documents, such as passports, insurance policies, tax returns and property deeds. So it is natural to assume a PDF of your signed will, saved on your computer or in the cloud, will do the job if the original goes missing.

In Ontario, a photocopy of a will generally won’t. Understanding why can save your family a great deal of time, money and stress.
 

Your Executor Needs the Original

To be formally appointed by the court, your executor applies for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee, commonly called probate. As part of that application, the court expects the original signed will, with ink signatures from you and your witnesses. Ontario courts require the original wet-ink document, and a photocopy of a will cannot be probated on its own. Even a notarized copy cannot be used without a court order.

A scan, photocopy or phone photo of your will is still a copy, however clear it is.
 

When the Original Goes Missing

This is where families can run into trouble. If your original will was last in your own possession and cannot be found after your death, Ontario law presumes that you destroyed it intending to revoke it.

In other words, the law starts by assuming that you deliberately cancelled your will. If that assumption cannot be overcome, your estate may be distributed under an earlier will, or under Ontario’s intestacy rules as if you had no will at all. That result may look nothing like what you planned.

Your executor can ask the court to accept a photocopy of a will instead. To succeed, the executor must prove four things:

• the will was properly signed and witnessed
• where the will was, from signing until your death
• that you did not destroy it intending to revoke it
• what the will said

If everyone with a financial interest in the estate agrees, this can sometimes be done with sworn affidavits. If anyone objects, the court may direct a more formal process, and that can become a contested court case. Either way, it is a separate court application that must be completed before the probate application can even begin.

Courts do accept a photocopy of a will when the evidence is there. In one 2025 Ontario decision, a photocopy was admitted to probate because the original had been lost after the testator’s death while in someone else’s possession, and there was no evidence it was destroyed on purpose. But that result came only after a court application.
 

Not All Copies Are Equal

If a photocopy of a will is all that’s left, the type of copy matters. A photocopy or scan that shows the actual signatures of the testator and witnesses is in a much stronger position than a “true copy” that only shows the names typed in. According to estate litigators, a photocopy with signatures can normally be proven, while a “true copy” normally cannot.
 

What About Signing a Will Electronically?

We are often asked whether a will can be signed with an e-signature, the way so many other documents are now signed online. In Ontario, the answer is still no.

Ontario’s electronic-document rules specifically exclude wills, so an electronic signature does not satisfy the formal requirements for signing a will.

Ontario does allow wills to be witnessed remotely by video, with conditions. At least one witness must be a lawyer or paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario, and identical paper copies can be signed in counterpart, with each person signing their own copy. Even then, everyone must sign in ink on paper. Remote witnessing does not make an unsigned PDF or an electronic signature enough.
 

Can a Court Save a Digital Will?

Since 2022, Ontario courts have had the power under section 21.1 of the Succession Law Reform Act to validate a will that wasn’t properly signed or witnessed, if the court is satisfied it reflects the deceased’s true and final intentions.

Whether that power extends to documents that exist only in electronic form is unsettled. Some Ontario judges have said it cannot, including in a case where a draft will existed only as a Word file on a lawyer’s computer. Another judge said in Gebremariam v. Mengesha (2026) that there is no outright ban, but that the electronic document must still meet the evidence requirements. The Court of Appeal declined to hear the appeal in that case because the ruling was only preliminary, so there is still no definitive answer from Ontario’s highest court.

For planning purposes, the message is simple: a will that exists only digitally is a risk your family should not have to litigate.
 

Practical Steps to Protect Your Will

• Keep the original safe. Many clients leave it in their lawyer’s vault. Others use a safety deposit box or a fireproof home safe.
• Tell your executor where it is. Make sure they know where the original is kept and how to get it.
• Keep a signed scan as a backup only. It may help if the original is lost, but it does not replace the original.
• Leave the original as it is. Don’t remove staples, attach notes or write on it. Changes to the original can raise questions about whether it was altered.
• Update properly. If your wishes change, see your lawyer about a new will or codicil. Don’t make handwritten notes on the original or rely on emailed instructions.
• Know where older originals are. If you have changed lawyers over the years, make sure you know where your current original will is held.

A photocopy of a will is a useful backup, but it is not a substitute for the original. Keeping the signed original safe, and making sure your executor can find it, is one of the simplest ways to make your estate easier to administer.

If you are not sure where your original will is, or you would like us to hold it for safekeeping, please contact our office.

This post provides general information about Ontario estate law and is not legal advice. Please speak with us about your own circumstances.