[KayteKat]

I am 53 and my fiance is 60...we live in Manitoba Canada. This will be a second marriage for both of us. I have 3 adult sons and 3 grandchildren...he lost his only son to suicide but he does have 2 adult grand daughters. I am coming to the marriage with very little assets...just my vehicle and personal items....but I will be working for the next 11 years...my salary is approx 45,000.00 per yr. He owns a house and has savings/RRSPs of approx 400,000.00. He is retired...actually on a disability claim through his emploer...this ends Dec of this year...then he will be receiving CPP and drawing income from his RRSP/RIFF.

His present will had his son and 2 grand daughters sharing one third each of his estate...with the recent death of his son his lawyer says the estate will now be divided equally between the grand daughters.

I know I am loved dearly by him but I would like to know how to be legally protected in the event of his death....I am too old to start all over again financially. Are we legally required to will our estates to my sons/his grand daughters (he has seldom been allowed to see his grand daughters..re: sons divorce many years ago)...or can we leave our estates to each other...will I have legal rights to a certain amount of his estate if he should die before me and income from his RRSPs. I wish we didn't have to deal with these issues but we do and this is all new to me.

We are not in a commonlaw arrangement...we will be married prior to my moving into his home.....any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[M. Giordano]

I am not sure about Canadian Federal or provincial law on these matters. But here in America, one can will pretty much will any part of one's estate to any person they choose subject only to the spousal exception which actually provides that a spouse cannot totally disinherit a spouse. If someone wants to disinherit a child they should make that clear in the will so that there isn't the presumption that the person "forgot" the child. See this link

http://www.inc.com/articles/1999/10/14707.html