BC's wills variation power: when a court can rewrite your will

Every other province on this site treats a valid will as close to final. British Columbia does not, and if you live there — or are moving there — this single section of WESA should shape how you write your will.

What section 60 says

If a will does not “make adequate provision for the proper maintenance and support” of the will-maker’s spouse or children, the court may vary it to make the provision it “thinks adequate, just and equitable in the circumstances.” Two things make this stronger than it sounds:

“Spouse” includes a two-year common-law partner. BC’s marriage-like-relationship definition applies.

“Children” includes self-sufficient adults. This is BC’s genuine outlier. Elsewhere, an independent adult child generally has no claim beyond dependant’s relief. In BC, since the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Tataryn, courts weigh not just legal obligations (spouse, dependants) but moral obligations — and a capable, estranged, fifty-year-old child can and regularly does bring a variation claim. Disinheriting an adult child in BC is not a drafting exercise; it is a litigation forecast.

How courts actually decide

Tataryn’s hierarchy: legal obligations first (what family law and support law would have required in life), then moral obligations judged by “contemporary community standards”. Factors that recur in the cases: the size of the estate, the claimant’s circumstances and contributions, estrangement and its causes, gifts made in life, and the reasons the will-maker recorded. Small estates and strong competing legal claims defeat moral claims; large estates and thin reasons invite variation.

The claim must be brought within 180 days of the grant of probate, and only spouses and children have standing — parents, siblings and friends do not.

What this means for ordinary wills

Most BC wills — everything to the spouse, then equally to the kids — are variation-proof because they already match the obligations. The regime bites uneven divisions, disinheritances and blended-family structures. If that is you, plan with eyes open; if not, make the ordinary will and sleep fine.