How does marrying an incapable person affect their existing will and estate plan in Ontario?

Since January 1, 2022, marriage no longer automatically revokes an existing will in Ontario, which is an important change from the old rule and means a predatory marriage entered into after that date doesn't, by itself, cancel the vulnerable person's earlier will the way it once would have. That said, marriage still meaningfully affects an estate plan in other ways: a surviving spouse generally gains the right to claim an equalization payment of net family property under the Family Law Act instead of taking under the will, within six months of death, regardless of what the will actually says, and a spouse can also have rights on intestacy for any property the will doesn't cover.

Because these spousal rights exist independently of whether the will itself was revoked, a predatory marriage can still significantly redirect an estate toward the new spouse even where the existing will remains technically valid and unchanged. If a marriage occurred before January 1, 2022, the older automatic revocation rule may still apply to it, so the specific date of the marriage matters. Given how these overlapping rules interact, get legal advice promptly if a predatory marriage is suspected alongside an existing will.