Estate Planning Updates by Major Life Event

A 41-year-old Halifax accountant marries her partner of seven years on a Saturday in June. Her will, signed at 27, leaves everything to her brother (then her primary adult relative) and names him as executor. The marriage took place in Nova Scotia, where the long-standing common-law rule that marriage automatically revokes a prior will still applied at the time. Her will is, as of the moment of the wedding ceremony, no longer valid. She does not realise this. Three years later, the couple's first child is born; the will is not updated. Two years after that, the couple has a second child and buys a house jointly. Still no update. When the accountant dies suddenly at 49, she is treated as having died intestate — the marriage revoked the old will, no new one was ever signed. The provincial intestacy statute distributes the estate. Her spouse is left scrambling to administer an estate built around documents she had every intention of updating across an eight-year window.

This is the most common estate-planning life-event failure in Canada. Not the failure to make a will in the first place; the failure to update it after the major events that change everything the will is built on. The point of this guide is to give you the short list — the eight life events that should send you back to the will, the Powers of Attorney, and the beneficiary designations — and a clear sense of what to update for each.

We will walk each event in turn, with the specific Canadian legal mechanics underlying each one.

Life event 1 — marriage #

The legal mechanics here have changed significantly in the past few years and continue to vary by province.

Historic rule. Across most Canadian common-law provinces, the marriage of the testator automatically revoked any prior will unless the will was made "in contemplation of the marriage."

Current position:

• Ontario abolished the automatic revocation rule effective January 1, 2022, through the Accelerating Access to Justice Act, 2021.^[2] A pre-marriage Ontario will signed today is generally not revoked by a subsequent marriage.
• Alberta abolished the rule earlier under the Wills and Succession Act.^[4]
• British Columbia abolished the rule in 2014 with the introduction of WESA.^[3]
• Other common-law provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI) vary — some still apply the automatic revocation rule, some have abolished it, and the position has been amended several times.

The practical takeaway: do not rely on a pre-marriage will surviving the marriage. Re-execute the will after marriage, in either case. The new will should reflect the spouse's existence even if the old will would technically still be valid in your province.

For the detailed provincial picture, see our piece on marriage and your will in Canada.

Life event 2 — separation or divorce #

Divorce generally voids gifts to a former spouse in a will, and revokes the former spouse's appointment as executor or trustee. The rule is consistent across most Canadian common-law provinces, though the precise statutory wording varies.^[1]

A few practical points most Canadians do not realise:

• Separation is not divorce. A separated-but-not-divorced spouse is generally still treated as a spouse for will purposes in most provinces (Ontario being a notable exception under Bill 245, which now treats certain separated spouses as if divorced for intestacy purposes).
• The will is otherwise still valid. Divorce only voids the spouse-specific provisions; the rest of the will continues to operate. If the will named the former spouse as the residual beneficiary and an alternate was named, the alternate takes; if no alternate was named, the residue may pass on intestacy.
• Beneficiary designations on RRSPs, TFSAs, life insurance, and pensions are not automatically changed by divorce. The designations need to be manually updated. A former spouse named on an RRSP designation that was never updated will generally still receive the proceeds.

The clean approach after a separation is to execute a new will, update every beneficiary designation, and re-execute the Powers of Attorney. See our pieces on divorce and your will in Canada.

Life event 3 — the birth or adoption of a child #

A new child generally triggers four updates:

1. Guardian appointment in the will. Names who would raise the child if both parents died. Provincial law treats the appointment as significant evidence of the parents' wishes but allows courts to depart from it for the child's best interest.
2. Testamentary trust for the child's inheritance. A child cannot legally receive an inheritance directly before the age of majority (18 or 19 depending on the province); a trust in the will lets the executor (or a separate trustee) hold and manage the inheritance until the child reaches a specified age.
3. Updated residue beneficiaries. If the will currently leaves everything to a spouse with no contingent provision for children, the contingent provision should be added.
4. Beneficiary designations on life insurance, RRSPs, and TFSAs. Naming a minor child directly as beneficiary generally forces the proceeds into a public-trustee account, not the guardian's hands. The cleaner approach is to name the spouse as primary beneficiary and the contingent path through the estate (or through a trust).

The window most estate planners suggest is the first six months after the birth or adoption. The window after a second or third child is similar; the practical bandwidth of new parents is the actual constraint.

See our piece on updating your will after the birth or adoption of a child.

Life event 4 — the purchase or sale of a property #

A new property in the estate generally needs:

• A specific bequest or a residue allocation that addresses the property.
• A direction about the tax burden flowing from the property's deemed disposition at death.
• Updates to the executor's powers if the property is unusual (a working farm, a US winter home, a commercial rental).

A property sold from the estate generally needs:

• Removal of any specific bequest that referenced the property, or an explicit direction that the bequest fails if the property is no longer owned.
• Reallocation of the residue that would otherwise have included the property.

A property purchased in a second province may trigger the need for a multi-province estate strategy. See our pieces on multiple properties estate planning and rental property estate planning.

Life event 5 — retirement #

Retirement reshapes the asset mix and the executor's eventual work. Typical updates:

• Beneficiary designations on the now-converted RRSPs and RRIFs. A pension that was a defined-benefit accrual at 50 becomes a survivor-pension election at retirement; the spouse generally needs to be confirmed as the named survivor.
• Consideration of a spousal trust in the will. For couples with significant appreciated assets, a testamentary spousal trust can defer capital gains to the second death while protecting the assets for children.
• A fresh executor confirmation. The executor named ten years ago may now be too old, too distant, or unwilling. Confirming the appointment at retirement avoids surprise.
• A Power of Attorney refresh. The POA signed during employment may name a colleague or a more distant family member; retirement is a natural moment to re-evaluate the choice.

Retirement is also generally the moment most Canadians have the bandwidth to do the estate-planning work that has been sitting on the to-do list for years.

Life event 6 — immigration in or out of Canada #

The cross-border move is one of the most consequential events for an estate plan.

Becoming a Canadian resident. Section 128.1 of the Income Tax Act treats the new resident as having acquired their capital property at fair market value as of the date of arrival.^[5] This creates a fresh cost base for Canadian tax purposes but does not displace the home country's claims on the same property. The will signed in the prior country may still be technically valid in Canada (with caveats — the formal requirements differ) but should generally be re-executed under Canadian law to ensure clean enforcement.

Leaving Canada. Section 128.1 also imposes a deemed disposition of most Canadian capital property at fair market value as of the date of departure — known informally as departure tax.^[5] The deemed disposition can trigger significant capital gains tax that must be paid (or security posted) before departure. The Canadian will may or may not be valid in the new country; a new will under the local jurisdiction is generally required.

A cross-border tax accountant and estate-planning lawyer with experience in both jurisdictions is the right team for either direction.

Life event 7 — the sale of a business #

For Canadian business owners, the sale of the operating business is one of the largest cash-in events in their lifetime and generally triggers a comprehensive estate review:

• The estate cash mix changes radically. The will needs to address how the sale proceeds are distributed.
• The lifetime capital gains exemption (LCGE) may have been used on the sale; this affects the deceased's later tax planning.
• Holding-company structures often emerge from a business sale and need to be addressed in the will (the shares of the holdco are the new asset, replacing the operating company shares).
• Life insurance funded by the business may need to be repatriated to a personal policy or to a new estate-planning structure.

The post-sale will is often substantially different from the pre-sale will because the underlying asset has changed shape entirely. See our piece on wills for business owners in Canada.

Life event 8 — the death of a beneficiary #

When a named beneficiary in the will dies before the testator, the will's contingent provisions determine what happens. Common scenarios:

• A gift to a child who dies before the testator without contingent provision — the gift may lapse and fall into residue, or pass to that child's descendants depending on provincial law and the will's wording.
• A gift to a spouse who dies before the testator — generally falls into the residue or to the contingent beneficiaries named in the will, but only if the will addresses the scenario.
• A residual beneficiary dying — without contingent residue language, the residue may pass on intestacy.

A current will updated within months of a beneficiary's death avoids these ambiguities. See our piece on after a beneficiary dies — why a stale will causes problems.

The annual estate-plan checkpoint #

Beyond the eight life events, a short annual checkpoint generally catches small drift before it becomes large:

• Beneficiary designations — pull each one and confirm it still names the intended person.
• Asset list — add new accounts, remove closed ones.
• Executor capability — confirm the named executor is still able and willing.
• Provincial residency — confirm the will was made under the laws of the province where the testator currently lives.

A 30-minute annual review is the cheapest way to catch issues that would otherwise compound across years.

What we focus on at It's Simple Will #

It's Simple Will is built to make these updates fast. The Will Creator supports updates as well as initial creation — when a life event happens, you can rerun the structured questions, confirm or change each answer, and produce an updated will without starting from scratch. The Life Discovery Kit also has a date-stamped version so you can see when each section was last updated, which makes the annual checkpoint a quick visual scan rather than a re-read of the whole document.

The eight life events covered above are the moments most Canadian estate plans become outdated. Most of them are also the moments people have the least bandwidth for paperwork. A short, structured update — under an hour for most users — is generally enough to keep the plan current and to keep the executor from inheriting a document that no longer matches the household it is supposed to describe.

For the underlying mechanics, see our pillar estate planning Canada complete guide and our piece on how often to update your will.