What happens if the residue of my estate has nowhere to go because all my beneficiaries died before me in Ontario?

If every beneficiary named to receive your residue dies before you, and none of them qualifies for Ontario's anti-lapse rule (a child or grandchild survived by their own descendants), the residue clause in your will simply fails. That does not undo the whole will — clauses appointing your executor, and specific gifts to people who are still alive, remain valid — but the residue itself is distributed under Ontario's intestacy rules, as though you had died without a will for that portion of the estate. This is called a partial intestacy.

A partial intestacy can produce results a testator never intended: instead of the people or causes named in the will, the residue passes to whatever relatives the intestacy formula identifies, which may include people the testator had deliberately left out.

The fix is straightforward drafting: name an alternate residuary beneficiary, or a chain of them, or add a "gift over" clause specifying where the residue goes if the primary choice does not survive. A registered charity is a common final fallback because it cannot predecease you.

Review your will whenever a named beneficiary dies, to confirm the residue clause still has somewhere valid to land.