Why Your Will Needs to Be Updated After Separation or Marriage

Most Canadians write a will once and file it away. Life moves on — relationships change, children arrive, marriages end — and the will sits untouched, increasingly disconnected from the life it was meant to reflect.

In Alberta, this creates real legal risk. The rules around how marriage and separation affect a will are specific, sometimes counterintuitive, and carry consequences that can be devastating for the people you love.

What Happens to Your Will When You Get Married in Alberta?

In many provinces, marriage automatically revokes an existing will — meaning your pre-marriage will becomes void the moment you walk down the aisle. In those provinces, dying without updating your will after marriage means dying intestate (without a valid will), and provincial intestacy rules determine who gets what.

Alberta is different. Under the Wills and Succession Act, marriage does not automatically revoke a will. Your pre-marriage will remains valid after you marry.

This sounds reassuring — but it creates a different problem. If your will was written before your marriage and leaves everything to your parents, your adult children from a prior relationship, or a former partner, your new spouse may receive nothing — or far less than you intended — unless you update the will.

Alberta law does provide some protections for surviving spouses through preferential share rights under intestacy and potential claims under family law. But these legal remedies are contested, expensive, and emotionally draining — not what you want your family to navigate after your death.

What Happens to Your Will When You Separate in Alberta?

Separation — including common-law separation — does not automatically change your will in Alberta. If your will leaves everything to your spouse and you separate but do not update your will before dying, your estranged spouse may still inherit.

This is the scenario that shocks most people. The instinct is that separation creates a legal break. Legally, it does not — not with respect to your will. Only divorce (final, legal divorce) triggers automatic revocation of gifts to a former spouse under Alberta’s Wills and Succession Act.

Common-law couples face additional complexity. Common-law partners are not treated identically to married spouses under Alberta estate law. Depending on your situation and the length of the relationship, your common-law partner may or may not have automatic inheritance rights — making a clear, current will even more critical.

Beneficiary Designations Are Separate From Your Will

One of the most overlooked estate planning issues after marriage or separation is beneficiary designations — the named recipients on RRSPs, TFSAs, RRIFs, life insurance policies, and pension plans.

These assets pass outside your will entirely. They go directly to whoever is named as beneficiary — regardless of what your will says, and regardless of your marital status.

This means:

• An RRSP naming your ex-spouse as beneficiary will pay out to your ex-spouse even if your will leaves everything to your new partner or children
• A life insurance policy naming your parents will pay to your parents even if you have a spouse and dependent children who need the money
• A TFSA with no named beneficiary will flow through your estate and be subject to probate and your will — which may not reflect your current wishes

After any major life change — marriage, separation, divorce, the birth of a child — review and update every beneficiary designation on every account. This is separate from updating your will and equally important.

Powers of Attorney: Also Affected

Your will governs what happens after death. Powers of attorney (POA) govern what happens while you are alive but incapacitated — who can make financial decisions for you, and who can make medical decisions for you.

If your current POA names your estranged spouse as your decision-maker, that person retains legal authority over your affairs during incapacity — regardless of your separation. Updating your enduring power of attorney and personal directive is as important as updating your will.

What to Do After Marriage or Separation

Action	After Marriage	After Separation
Update your will	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Update beneficiary designations on all registered accounts	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Update life insurance beneficiaries	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Update enduring power of attorney	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Update personal directive (healthcare POA)	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Review pension plan beneficiary	✅ Immediately	✅ Immediately
Review joint account ownership	✅ Discuss with advisor	✅ Immediately

Working With Both a Lawyer and a Financial Planner

Estate documents — wills, powers of attorney, personal directives — must be drafted by a lawyer. A financial planner cannot draft legal documents. What a fee-only financial planner can do is ensure your overall estate plan is integrated: that your will, your beneficiary designations, your account ownership structure, and your insurance coverage all work together to achieve what you actually want.

The most common estate planning failure is not a badly written will — it is a will that says one thing while the beneficiary designations say something else entirely. Coordinating these across all your accounts and policies is financial planning work, and it is where many people leave significant gaps.