If my will and my beneficiary designation conflict, which one wins?

The beneficiary designation wins for accounts and policies that allow them. A direct designation on an RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, pension, or life insurance policy is a binding contractual direction that the financial institution or insurer must follow regardless of what your will says about those assets.

Your will only controls assets that actually form part of your estate — assets you own in your own name without a valid designation or joint ownership arrangement. If an asset passes by designation or survivorship right, the will simply does not reach it.

This is one of the most common and preventable estate planning mistakes in Ontario: people update their will after a life change but forget to update their account-level designations, and the money goes to the wrong person. Or they update their designations but leave an outdated will, creating a mismatch elsewhere.

The solution is to treat your will and your designations as one integrated plan, review them together after every major life event, and keep records of what you have done. An estate lawyer can help you map out where each asset will go and identify any conflicts.