Review the will immediately. Divorce commonly revokes gifts to a former spouse, but separation without divorce often changes nothing.
The Canadian position
Review the will immediately. Divorce commonly revokes gifts to a former spouse, but separation without divorce often changes nothing.
Provincial law governs validity, administration and the grounds on which a will can be challenged — so the answer can change if you move.
The Islamic position
Have the faraid shares recalculated whenever the family configuration changes; they are conditional on who survives.
Record the reasoning and the scholar consulted in a memorandum kept with the will.
A revocable divorce does not cut off inheritance while the ‘idda runs, and an irrevocable divorce pronounced in health ends it — both are common ground. The schools divide, four ways, on the talaq al-firar: the divorce a dying man pronounces to cut his wife out. They divide not on whether she is protected but on how long the protection lasts — to the end of the ‘idda (Hanafi), until she remarries (the Hanbali mashhur), for ever, even through later marriages (Maliki), or not at all (Shafi’i, settled position).
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Does a divorced spouse inherit?.
What to do about it
- Recalculate the shares for the new circumstances.
- Update the will with a lawyer in your province.
- Review every beneficiary designation.
- Confirm where the original is kept.
This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.
Citations & sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to a source below. Details change — check the original source before relying on any figure, fee or legal position. Anything under “further reading” is related material, not a source for what is stated here.
- Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Family Law Act, RSO 1990, c F.3 — Government of Ontario
- Separation not divorce beneficiary designation ontario — Treadstone Law
- Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
- Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
- Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law