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How Divorce, Remarriage, or Separation Affects Your Existing Estate Plan

How Divorce, Remarriage, or Separation Affects Your Existing Estate Plan

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Life is not static. Relationships shift. Families grow, separate, or blend together. Yet estate plans often sit untouched, written once and forgotten. That silence carries risk. Divorce, separation, and remarriage can all change how your estate is handled after death.
Many Canadians believe their will covers them for life. But the truth is different. Laws change. Families change. Without updates, your estate plan may work against you. It can distribute assets to people you no longer intend. It can exclude loved ones who should inherit. It can empower an ex-spouse to make decisions you would never want them to make.
At Forum Estates, we often see how outdated documents create conflicts. The cost of ignoring these changes is not only financial. It can fracture families at the worst possible moment.

Divorce and Your Will

Divorce has an immediate effect on estate planning. In several provinces, such as Ontario, divorce revokes gifts made to a former spouse in a will. It also cancels their appointment as executor. The will itself remains valid, but it now has gaps.

That sounds protective. But it can also leave your plan incomplete. Imagine naming your spouse as the sole executor and beneficiary. After divorce, those roles vanish. With no replacements listed, the court must step in. The estate may be delayed or mismanaged. 

Beneficiary designations complicate matters. Life insurance, RRSPs, and pensions often pass outside the will. Divorce does not automatically cancel these. If designations remain unchanged, an ex-spouse can still inherit.  

Divorce protects in some ways. But it also exposes other vulnerabilities. 

Separation and Its Grey Area

Separation is more dangerous. Unlike divorce, separation does not always affect a will. A separated spouse may still inherit if the will names them. They may remain executor. Unless you rewrite the document, the law may continue to treat them as if nothing has changed.

Consider a person separated for ten years but never divorced. If they die without revising their plan, the estranged spouse may take priority. A long-term new partner may be left out entirely. Children may be caught between. 

This is not theory. Canadian courts often hear cases where separated spouses fight with common-law partners or adult children over estates. The law is precise, but human relationships are not. A will that ignores separation creates a battlefield. 

The Estate Consequences of Remarriage

Remarriage creates both joy and complication. New relationships bring blended families, stepchildren, and competing claims. Without planning, remarriage can erase your original intentions.
In some provinces, marriage revokes a prior will unless it was written “in contemplation of marriage.” That means a remarried person who never updated their will may be treated as though they died without one. In intestacy, provincial formulas take over.
For example, in Ontario, a surviving spouse receives a preferential share of the estate, with the rest divided among children. Unless otherwise adopted, stepchildren are excluded. It may end up leaving the blended families divided and the stepchildren unprotected.
There are tools that allow the balancing of interests. Spousal trusts, for example, allow a surviving new spouse to benefit during their lifetime while preserving capital for children from a previous union. Yet tools of this kind demand legal drafting and foresight. Stock or do-it-yourself wills are not able to establish that balance.

Powers of Attorney and Personal Care

Estate planning does not celeb only about wills. The powers of attorney also count. This paper grants power on money or health care in the event you are incapacitated. In case of divorce, revocation of a power attorney in the name of a spouse is required. Otherwise, an ex-spouse may still control your accounts or health decisions. 

The risks are obvious. Imagine lying in a hospital bed while someone you divorced years ago makes life choices for you. Unless you revoke and update these documents, that scenario is possible. 

Property, Tax, and Divorce

Property adds another layer. Family homes, cottages, and investment real estate often feature in estate disputes. Divorce or separation alters ownership and tax consequences. Transfers may trigger capital gains. Joint tenancy arrangements may collapse.
If plans are not revised, beneficiaries inherit confusion instead of clarity. The law fills gaps, but rarely in ways that reflect personal wishes. Ambiguous estate provisions following marital breakdowns create conflict and court battles.

Feeling Unheard

Families experience fights when records do not correspond with the reality. Children hate being substitutable. Old wounds are reopened. These are not only conflicts experienced by the affluent. Even the humble estates will inject deep fissures where the documents are ambiguous.

In our experience at Forum Estates, families have paid so much in litigation as to exceed the value of the estate in question. The silent cost is in both dollar terms, as well as the relationships that cannot return.

How to Protect Your Estate After Relationship Changes

  • Review your plan after every major change
Divorce, separation, or remarriage should trigger an immediate review of your will, beneficiary designations, and powers of attorney.
  • Update beneficiary designations
RRSPs, life insurance, and pensions pass outside your will. Make sure designations match your intentions.
  • Plan for blended families
Use trusts or clear clauses to balance obligations between new spouses and children from earlier relationships.
  • Revise powers of attorney
Appoint someone you currently trust for financial and health decisions.
  • Work with professionals
Provincial laws differ. A lawyer can spot conflicts and close loopholes that templates overlook.

Conclusion

Divorce, separation, and remarriage are moments of change. They influence family, emotions and money. They also alter your estate plan, in a manner that you may find startling.
The unspoken price of neglecting such changes comes in terms of arguing, time wastage and broken families.
Estate planning needs to keep pace with life. It is not a document written once and sealed away. It is a living process that protects loved ones when you no longer can.
At Forum Estates, we help Canadians adapt their estate plans to the realities of change. Life does not stand still. Neither should your will.