This is pretty much what happened when my Mom died. Her will stated that everything was to be divided equally among all five children. One of my brothers was executor of the estate, and he took care of selling her stocks and distributing the proceeds. After some discussion my sister bought the family home, using her fifth of its appraised value as the down payment and the proceeds from the balance divided among the other four.
And just to show how friendly our family is: The youngest brother was the sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy which Mom had taken out. Despite the fact that this was not part of the estate, he divided the payout among all five of us.
I suppose this is coupled with a provision that gives the cohabitant an entitlement under intestate rules? Otherwise this wouldn’t make sense IMHO. To me, the rationale for voiding the existing will is the presumption that the testator would have wanted to provide for the partner, so the old will, which does not yet consider the partner, is voided to make room for the intestate rules. Under those rules, spouses are usually treated very favourably. But in case of a partner who doesn’t benefit under the intestate rules, the cancellation of the existing will makes no difference.
Yes, that’s correct. It was a general update to the provincial family laws about 25 years ago, to recognise that there are a lot of couples who cohabit for lengthy periods of time without getting married. The changes applied equally to opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples, prior to the change to the federal marriage law that allowed for same-sex marriage. The changes ensured that for all purposes of provincial law, same-sex couples would have the same rights as opposite-sex couples.
And as I understand, the Canada Pension Plan (not unlike Social Security) will pay to the person who has cohabited for the last 6 months or more, regardless of marital status.
I know of someone who split with their wife (who moved out) and shacked up with a new partner. He never got divorced. He died 11 years later of a heart attack; he’d never updated his will (if he had one) or sorted out the joint title on the house or even his beneficiary on his company life insurance.
The wife and kids came to take the house they’d lived in for 11 years, and even his new boat and such. The only thing the partner got was his Canada Pension.