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What should I do about my will if I have a child with a disability?

Consider a fully discretionary trust so their share does not disqualify them from provincial support, and confirm the structure with a scholar.

This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.

Consider a fully discretionary trust so their share does not disqualify them from provincial support, and confirm the structure with a scholar.

The Canadian position

Consider a fully discretionary trust so their share does not disqualify them from provincial support, and confirm the structure with a scholar.

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.

Researched — the schools differ

No classical school was ever asked this, and we found no ruling on it from any recognised body. That is the honest starting point, and this entry does not paper over it with an invented four-school table about trusts. What the classical sources do supply is the principle the question would be decided by, and there the schools are recorded as differing. Ownership (milk) is defined as a legally recognised enablement to take the benefit of a thing and to take a price for it; the mark of complete ownership, on Ibn Taymiyya’s account, is that the holder can sell it, give it away — and that it is inherited from him. A person who can only hope that a trustee will choose him has none of that. What he has is at best a claim of the kind the schools argue about: the Malikis, Shafi’is and Hanbalis define an estate as everything the deceased left of property and established rights, without restriction, while the Hanafis confine it to property, or a right connected to property, clear of anyone else’s claim on the thing itself.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — A discretionary trust interest — is anything owned?.

Related madhhab issue: Does an heir’s share vest the moment the person dies?.

What to do about it

  1. Recalculate the shares for the new circumstances.
  2. Update the will with a lawyer in your province.
  3. Review every beneficiary designation.
  4. Confirm where the original is kept.
Note

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.

Canadian legislation & government
  1. T3 Trust Guide — Canada Revenue Agency
  2. Ontario Disability Support Program — Government of Ontario
Further reading — Treadstone Law
  1. Beneficiary designation vs will which controls — Treadstone Law
  2. Will vs beneficiary designation which controls — Treadstone Law
  3. Conflicting wills which one governs ontario — Treadstone Law
  4. Adding new child to will ontario — Treadstone Law
  5. Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law