The Three Forms of Will in Quebec

Three documents can carry a person’s last wishes in Quebec and nothing else can. Article 712 of the Civil Code of Quebec names them and the list is closed: the notarial will, the holograph will, and the will made in the presence of witnesses. What separates them is not what they are allowed to say. It is what happens to the family in the months after the funeral, when somebody has to satisfy a court, a notary, a land registrar and a financial institution that the paper in their hand is genuine and is the last one the deceased made. One of the three forms carries that proof inside itself. The other two have to be taken somewhere and verified before anyone will act on them. This page sets out how each form is made, who may witness one, where each is kept, and what verification involves.

Three forms, and no others

Article 712 of the Civil Code of Quebec is one sentence long and it is exhaustive. The only forms of will that may be made are the notarial will, the holograph will and the will made in the presence of witnesses. A document that is not one of those three is not a will in Quebec, however clearly it states an intention. Article 713 adds that the formalities of each kind of will shall be observed on pain of nullity, then softens that: a will made in one form which fails as that form is valid as a will made in another form if it meets that other form’s requirements.

Article 714 adds a second safety net, and only for the two non notarial forms. A holograph will or a will made in the presence of witnesses that does not fully meet the requirements of its form is valid nevertheless if it meets the essential requirements and unequivocally contains the last wishes of the deceased. But every one of those rescues happens in front of a judge or a notary, after the death, at the family’s expense. The rescue exists. It is not a plan. Source: Civil Code of Quebec, LégisQuebec, read 8 September 2026.

How a notarial will is made

Article 716 sets the frame. A notarial will is executed by a notary, en minute, in the presence of a witness or, in certain cases, two witnesses, and the date and place of its making are noted on it. En minute means the original never leaves the notary: it is entered in the notary’s records and stays there, and what circulates afterwards is a certified copy. Article 717 sets the ceremony. The notary reads the will to the testator, who then declares that the act read contains the expression of his last wishes, and the will is signed by the testator, the witnesses and the notary in each other’s presence.

Two situations call for a second witness. Under article 719 the notarial will of a testator who cannot sign contains a declaration to that effect, read before two witnesses, and that declaration compensates for the missing signature. Under article 720 the notarial will of a blind person is read to the testator before two witnesses. Article 718 is the quiet workhorse: the formalities governing notarial wills are presumed to have been observed even when this is not expressly stated. That presumption is why a notarial will can be produced at a financial institution the week after a death and simply be accepted.

Who may witness, and who may receive

Article 725 governs the witness to a notarial will. The witness is named and described in the will, and any person of full age may witness, with one exclusion: an employee of the officiating notary who is not himself a notary. Article 723 excludes the notary rather than the witness, and a notarial will may not be executed by a notary who is the spouse of the testator or related in the direct or collateral line up to and including the third degree. Article 724 permits that notary to be named liquidator in the will, but only if the office is fulfilled gratuitously.

Article 760 is the rule that catches ordinary families, and it reaches witnesses generally. A legacy made to a witness, even a supernumerary witness, is without effect, although the rest of the will stands. The same rule reaches any part of a legacy to a liquidator named in the will that exceeds their remuneration, where that person also witnessed. The consequence is blunt. The people who stand to inherit are precisely the people who must not sign as witnesses, and the adult child who signs to be helpful can extinguish their own legacy. See liquidator compensation.

The holograph will and the technical means trap

Article 726 is two sentences and they are the whole law of the holograph will. It shall be written entirely by the testator and signed by him, without the use of technical means, and it is subject to no other formal requirement. No witnesses, no date required by the article, no professional in the room. That is the cheapest and fastest valid will available anywhere in Canada, and it is also where most of the trouble starts. A will typed and then signed by hand is not a holograph will. A printed form with the blanks completed by hand is not one either.

A document that fails as a holograph will is not necessarily dead, since article 713 lets it stand as a will made in the presence of witnesses if it meets that form’s requirements. But a typed sheet signed with no witnesses meets neither of the other two forms, and there is nothing left to convert it into. The second problem is that nothing about a holograph will is on record anywhere: no date of deposit, no file number, no professional who knows it exists. If it is not found it does not operate. See what happens without a will.

The will made in the presence of witnesses

Article 727 sets out the third form and it is more flexible than most people assume. The will is written by the testator or by a third person, so it may be typed or drafted by somebody else. The testator declares, before two witnesses of full age, that the document he presents is his will, and he need not divulge its contents. He signs it at the end or acknowledges a signature already there. The witnesses then sign forthwith in his presence. Article 728 adds that where a third person or a technical means wrote it, the testator and the witnesses initial each page that does not bear their signature.

Two variations sit alongside. Under article 729 a person unable to read may make a will before witnesses provided it is read to the testator by one of them in the presence of the other. Under article 730 a person unable to speak but able to write may make one by indicating in writing, otherwise than by technical means, that the document presented is his will. The witness rule in article 760 bites hardest here, because this is the form where the witnesses are most often family. Two neighbours who take nothing under the will are the right choice.

Why the notarial will needs no verification

The answer sits in the law of evidence rather than in the law of successions. Paragraph 6 of article 2814 lists notarial acts among the documents that are authentic if they conform to the requirements of the law, and article 2818 gives an authentic act its force: the recital, in an authentic act, of the facts which the public officer had the task of observing or recording makes proof against all persons. The notary had the task of observing the reading, the declaration and the signatures, and recorded them, so there is no factual gap for a verification procedure to fill.

Article 772 confirms the point from the other side, requiring verification of the two non notarial forms and not mentioning the notarial will. None of this makes a notarial will unchallengeable. A person with grounds can still attack the capacity of the testator, allege undue influence, or attack the recitals through the improbation procedure. What the authentic character removes is the ordinary, universal step the other two forms cannot escape. The difference is between a will that works on production and a will that works after a procedure.

Verification, and what it costs in time

Article 772 provides that a holograph will or a will made in the presence of witnesses is probated, on the application of any interested person, in the manner prescribed in the Code of Civil Procedure, and that the known heirs and successors are summoned unless the court grants an exemption. The English text uses the word probate, but this is not the common law grant: it verifies a document and appoints nobody, as the companion article explains. Article 312 of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the application to go before a notary rather than a court, unless the will was deposited with that notary or a member of the same firm.

The court route runs through the special clerk, who may excuse the calling of all known successors under article 459 and may order a third person holding the original to produce it under article 460. Under article 461 a will verified by the court is deposited at the court office, while one verified by a notary is kept in the notary’s records, with certified copies issuing from either. This article prints no fee figure because the figures move: section 15 of the Tariff of judicial fees in civil matters, CQLR chapter T-16, r. 10, sets a fixed amount rather than one computed on value. What families underestimate is not the fee but the weeks, and under article 462 a will may still be contested after verification. Source: LégisQuebec, read 8 September 2026.

Where a will is kept, and the two registers

Storage is the practical difference nobody discusses until it matters. The notarial will stays with the notary because article 716 requires it to be executed en minute, so the family cannot lose it or throw it out with the papers. A holograph will and a will made in the presence of witnesses are ordinary documents kept wherever the testator decided. Two professional orders maintain registers that close part of that gap. The Chambre des notaires du Quebec keeps a register of testamentary dispositions established in 1961 and a register of protection mandates established in 1991, and does not hold the documents themselves.

Only the existence of a document is recorded, and holograph wills and wills made before witnesses can also be entered, through a notary. The Barreau du Quebec keeps equivalent registers for documents held by lawyers. The registers exist because of a duty: article 803 says the liquidator shall search to ascertain whether the deceased made a will and, if so, causes it to be verified. In practice that means a search certificate from each register, and a holograph will in a drawer is invisible to that search. Sources read 8 September 2026. See the first steps after a death.

The lost holograph will

The Code deals with the missing will twice, and both provisions cut against the family that cannot find one. The second paragraph of article 767 provides that revocation is entailed where the testator was aware of the destruction or loss of the will and could have replaced it. A testator who knew the will was lost, who could have made another and did not, is treated as having revoked it. The first paragraph covers deliberate destruction: tearing, destroying or erasing such a will entails revocation where the testator did it or had it done.

Article 774 handles the case where the will is simply gone. A will that is not produced may not be verified, and it must be reconstituted in an action to which the heirs, the other successors and the legatees by particular title are summoned, with proof of its contents, origin and regularity that is conclusive and unequivocal. That is a full contested proceeding brought by grieving people against one another. It is the strongest argument against keeping a holograph will as the only will, and registering its existence with a notary or a lawyer is the cheap step that prevents it.

Revocation and the effect of a later will

Under article 765 express revocation is made by a subsequent will explicitly declaring the change of intention, and a revocation that does not name the act being revoked is express all the same. That is why a properly drafted will opens by revoking all previous testamentary dispositions. Article 766 removes a common worry: a will that revokes another may be made in a different form. A holograph will can revoke a notarial will and a notarial will can revoke a holograph one. No will is too formal to be undone.

Article 768 governs the case where the later document says nothing about revoking. A subsequent testamentary provision entails tacit revocation of an earlier one to the extent that the two are inconsistent, and that revocation keeps its full effect even if the later provision lapses. A legacy can therefore be destroyed without being replaced, which is one of the ways families end up with a partial intestacy nobody intended. See beneficiary designations, because a valid designation on a contract is not undone by a later will.

Making the choice

Set out plainly, the three forms trade the same currency in different directions. The holograph will costs nothing and can be made in ten minutes at a kitchen table, and it spends the family’s money and months after the death. The will made in the presence of witnesses sits in the middle: it can be typed and prepared by somebody else, but it still needs two adult witnesses who take nothing under it, and it still needs verification. The notarial will costs a professional fee in advance, is kept by the notary, and needs no verification at all.

The holograph will still has one use nothing else covers. It can be made immediately, anywhere, by anyone able to write, at no cost, which makes it the right answer the night before surgery, provided it is replaced within weeks. Beyond that, the shape of the estate matters more than the size of the fee: an immovable, a business interest or a blended family all raise the odds that verification turns into a dispute. And no form fixes the last thing, since a will governs only what passes through the estate. See the estate planning checklist and wills and estate basics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Continue Learning

Read why Quebec has no probate next, because it explains what replaces the grant the rest of the country takes for granted, and read it before the national probate explainer, which describes a procedure a Quebec estate will never use. Choosing the person who settles the estate and what happens without a will are the decisions that sit on either side of choosing a form, and planning for incapacity covers the document that works while you are still alive.