What happens to a bequest left to a charity in a will if the charity has since lost its registration?

What happens depends heavily on how the gift was worded and what actually happened to the organization. If the will names a specific charity that has since dissolved, merged into another organization, or lost its CRA registration, the gift does not automatically fail — Ontario courts have long applied a doctrine, sometimes called cy-près, that allows a gift intended for a charitable purpose to be redirected to a similar organization carrying on comparable work, where the will's wording supports treating the gift as one for a purpose rather than strictly for that one legal entity.

Whether that doctrine applies, and how smoothly, depends on details: a gift phrased as being for a described charitable purpose is more flexible than one that names only a specific corporation with no other wording to fall back on. If the named organization simply changed its legal name or continued into a successor entity, the estate trustee may be able to resolve this more simply by confirming the successor's status, without a court application.

An estate trustee facing this situation should not assume the gift lapses, but should also not simply redirect it based on their own judgment — getting advice, and in some cases a court's direction, protects the trustee and ensures the gift is properly honoured.