All Posts

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, it seemed like a good time to consider this question. At our law office in Ottawa, we are asked this question time and time again by the executors we work with and by our estate planning clients. Many are surprised at the answer.
A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is often opened by a parent or grandparent, the subscriber, to save for the post-secondary education of a child or grandchild. Many subscribers mistakenly assume that upon their death the RESP will be treated like other registered assets, such as TFSAs and RRSPs, which pass directly to the beneficiary that they have named.

What is the second marriage problem?  If a couple marry or live common law a second or even a third time, how do each of them ensure that children from a previous marriage or relationship inherit but the second spouse isn’t left destitute or worse yet when the first spouse dies.
Dr. Samuel Johnson famously remarked that remarrying was “the triumph of hope over experience.”  Whether marrying again or ‘living together’ in a subsequent relationship, at the beginning hope is usually high that this one will last forever.  That’s the ideal time to talk about the problem … “How do we take care of each other if one of us dies and yet ensure that our own children inherit from us?”.

I’m asked this question quite frequently at my law office in the Kanata-Stittsville area of Ottawa. The answer is yes, under Ontario law, but with one qualifier. If the testator (the person who signed the Will) is legally divorced from his or her spouse when the testator passes away, any Will signed before the divorce is still valid but would be read as if the testator’s spouse had died first. All other provisions of the Will would still be effective. However, if the testator’s circumstances have changed since the Will was signed, the Will’s remaining provisions may no longer reflect the testator’s goals.