REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN THE LAWS REGARDING WILLS IN ONTARIO – PART 3 WILLS NO LONGER REVOKED BY MARRIAGE

REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN THE LAWS REGARDING WILLS IN ONTARIO - PART 3
Date: 13 May, 2021| Author: Fred Streiman

Amongst the elderly and vulnerable there is a serious problem known as predatory marriages. The common scenario is that an elderly widow or widower marries someone generally much younger while not really understanding what or why they are doing it. The motivation of the predatory spouse is that when the elderly spouse dies, often with no Will at all, the predatory spouse will have acquired a substantial interest in their late husband/wife’s estate. The mental capacity test for marriage is far far lower than the capacity required to make a Will. The new Accelerating Access to Justice Act, once it is finally proclaimed, will eliminate an existing provision of the Succession Law Reform Act. That provision now states that any Will is revoked by a subsequent marriage unless that Will contains magic words stating that this Will is made in contemplation of my marriage to…. Plainly put imagine the following common scenario. Predatory gold digger marries an elderly person whose existing will is cancelled automatically by marriage, and the gold digger gets a huge share of the elderly person’s estate upon their death. Note that this amendment will not be retroactive and only applies to deaths that occur after the proclamation of the law.