How to Write a Will in Manitoba

Written November 13, 2026

The short answer

Manitoba wills are governed by The Wills Act, and Manitoba keeps two points that trip people up. First, marriage revokes a Manitoba will under sections 16 and 17, apart from two narrow exceptions. Second, Manitoba has an old, broad saving power in section 23: a court may order a non-compliant document fully effective if it embodies your testamentary intentions. Neither point is a reason to sign carelessly. The working forms are the witnessed will in section 4 and the holograph will in section 6. Pick one and follow its rules exactly. This guide covers the signing process only. It gives no advice on what your will should say.

Step 1: Confirm you can make a Manitoba will

Section 3 is the first rule: a will is valid only when it is in writing.

Section 8 then sets the age rule. A will made by a person under 18 is not valid unless, at the time of making the will, the person is or has been married, is a member of a component of the Canadian Forces referred to in the National Defence Act (Canada) as a regular force, or is a person described in section 5. Section 8(3) adds that a person who made a will under that under-18 rule may, while still under 18, revoke it.

Section 5 itself covers a separate group. A member of the Canadian Forces while on active service under the National Defence Act (Canada), a member of any other naval, land, or air force while on active service, or a mariner or seaman when at sea or in the course of a voyage, may make a will by a writing signed at its end, with no further formality and no witness required.

Step 2: Pick the form — witnessed or holograph

Witnessed will (section 4). This is the typed, printed, or handwritten will you sign in front of witnesses. The mechanics are in Step 3. Section 10 adds that a will made in accordance with the Act is valid without other publication.

Holograph will (section 6). Section 6 reads: a person may make a valid will wholly in the person's own handwriting and signed at its end by the person, without formality, and without the presence of, or attestation or signature by, a witness. Wholly means the whole document. A typed page with handwritten additions is not a holograph will under section 6. It would need to stand as a section 4 will, witnesses and all.

Step 3: Sign a witnessed will the section 4 way

Subject to sections 5 and 6, section 4 says a will is not valid unless three things happen:

• You sign at the end. At its end it is signed by you, or by some other person in your presence and by your direction.
• Both witnesses are there together. You make or acknowledge the signature in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time.
• The witnesses sign in your presence. Two or more of the witnesses attest and subscribe the will in your presence.

Section 7 softens only the placement of the signature. A will is deemed signed at its end if the signature is placed at, after, following, under, beside, or opposite the end, so it is apparent on the face of the will that you intended to give effect to the writing as your will. Section 7(2) lists cases that do not on their own invalidate a will, such as a blank space before the signature or a signature placed among the words of an attestation clause. Section 7(3) draws the line that matters: a signature does not give effect to a disposition or direction underneath or following the signature, or inserted after the signature was made. Sign at the true end, and add nothing below it.

Step 4: Choose witnesses who gain nothing from the will

Section 11 says a will is not invalid just because a witness was, at execution or later, incompetent as a witness to prove its execution. Sections 14 and 15 add that a creditor whose debt is charged in the will, and an executor, are not incompetent as witnesses for that reason alone.

The cost in Manitoba lands on gifts, not on the will itself. Under section 12(1), where a will is attested by a person to whom, or to whose then spouse, a beneficial gift is given — other than charges and directions for payment of debt — that gift is void so far as it concerns the witness, the spouse, or a person claiming under either of them. The witness stays a competent witness to prove execution or validity.

Two saves sit in the same section. Under section 12(2), the gift is not void where the will was attested by at least two other persons outside section 12(1), or where no attestation was necessary. Under section 12(3), the court, on application, may order the gift valid where it is satisfied neither the witness nor the spouse exercised improper or undue influence on you. Section 13 applies the same void-gift rule, and the same court save, where the person who signed the will on your behalf, or that person's spouse, takes a gift under it.

Neither save is a signing plan. Use two adult witnesses who take nothing under the will and are not married to anyone who does.

Step 5: Handle marriage, divorce, alterations, and revocation as Manitoba writes them

Marriage revokes. Section 16 lists how a will or part of a will is revoked, and paragraph (a) is marriage of the testator, subject to section 17. Section 17 then gives the only two outs: a declaration in the will that it is made in contemplation of the marriage, or a will exercising a power of appointment of real or personal property that would not, in default of the appointment, pass to the heir, executor, or administrator, or to the persons entitled on intestacy. If you marry in Manitoba and your will says nothing about that marriage, plan to make a new will.

Divorce revokes gifts to the former spouse. Section 18(1) says a will is not revoked by a presumption of intention from a change in circumstances. Section 18(2) is the stated exception for divorce: where a gift, an executor or trustee appointment, or a power of appointment in favour of a spouse is followed by a decree absolute of divorce, or a finding that the marriage is void or a nullity, those provisions are revoked unless a contrary intention appears in the will, and the will is read as if the spouse had predeceased you.

Other revocation is a closed list. Apart from marriage, section 16 allows revocation only by a later will valid under the Act, by a later writing declaring an intention to revoke and made the way a will is made, or by burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the will by you, or by someone in your presence and by your direction, with the intention of revoking it.

Alterations need the same formality. Under section 19(1), an alteration made after the will has no effect — except to invalidate words it renders no longer apparent — unless it is made in accordance with the Act's rules for making a will. Section 19(2) says how: your signature, and the witnesses' subscription to it, in the margin or another part of the will opposite or near the alteration, or at the foot or end of a memorandum referring to the alteration. For a will made under section 5 or 6, your signature alone does that work. Section 20 adds that a revoked will or part is revived only by a will or codicil made under the Act that shows an intention to revive it.

Step 6: Know what section 23 does, and do not rely on it

Section 23 is Manitoba's substantial compliance rule, and it is broader than a mere signature fix. Where, on application, the court is satisfied a document or writing embodies the testamentary intentions of a deceased person, or an intention to revoke, alter, or revive a will or a testamentary intention in another document, the court may order that document or writing fully effective as though it had been executed in compliance with all the formal requirements of the Act. Section 38(3) states that section 23, with sections 12(3) and 13(2), applies where a person dies on or after October 1, 1983, whether the will was made before or after that date.

That power belongs to a court after your death, on an application your estate must bring. It does not make an unsigned note a safe will while you are alive. Sign under section 4 or section 6, store the original where your executor will find it, and treat section 23 as the backstop it is.

What the opened pages do not state

The Wills Act sets the signing rules but does not set a fee for making a will, a government filing fee, or a registry where a Manitoba will must be deposited, so this guide states none. The Act also does not publish a standard Manitoba will form or self-help kit on the pages opened for this guide. Section 23 gives a court a saving power, but the Act does not state what a section 23 application costs or how long it takes, so this guide gives neither figure.

Related guides:

• How to Make a Will in Canada — the national overview, starting from the rule that each province sets its own signing requirements.
• How to Write a Will in Saskatchewan — Saskatchewan's execution rules, the closest prairie comparison to Manitoba's sections 4 and 6.
• How to Write a Will in Ontario — Ontario's formal and holograph rules, for comparison with Manitoba's marriage-revocation rule.
• How to Apply for Probate in Manitoba — what happens with the will in Manitoba after a death.
• How to Write a Will in Alberta — Alberta's sections 15 and 16, where marriage does not revoke the will as Manitoba's section 17 does.

Sources

• Manitoba Laws, The Wills Act, R.S.M. 1988, c. W150 — section 3 writing required, section 4 witnessed execution at the end before two or more witnesses present at the same time, section 5 forces and mariners wills, section 6 holograph wills, section 7 placement of the signature and writing below it, section 8 under-18 wills, section 11 incompetency of a witness, section 12 gifts to an attesting witness and its two saves, section 13 gifts to a person signing for the testator, sections 14 and 15 creditors and executors as witnesses, section 16 revocation including by marriage, section 17 marriage exceptions, section 18(2) effect of divorce, section 19 alterations, section 20 revival, section 23 substantial compliance, and section 38(3) application of section 23 to deaths on or after October 1, 1983.