Dependant Support Claims: What happens to your assets when you leave the city you once called home?
In late March 2026, The Economist published an article entitled “Westerners are fleeing their countries in record numbers”. As relocation has become more common, whether it is for career prospects, work-life balance, or chasing a more tropical lifestyle, the question arises: what happens to your assets when you leave the city you once called home?
What is Domicile?
Domicile is the country a person considers their permanent home, regardless of where they currently reside.
When someone dies, and there is a dispute about their estate, one of the first questions a lawyer will ask is: where was the deceased domiciled? Domicile is not the same as nationality or residence. A person may reside in one country and hold citizenship in another but have their domicile in a third, depending on where they have established their fixed and permanent home with the intention of remaining there.
Why Domicile Matters for Dependant Support Claims
In Ontario, dependant support claims are governed by Part V of the Succession Law Reform Act (the “SLRA”). However, the SLRA does not apply automatically to every estate with a connection to Ontario. A key question is whether Ontario law governs the estate in the first place.
As a general rule, the law of the deceased’s domicile at the time of death governs claims for dependant support in respect of moveable property, such as bank accounts, investments, and other personal assets. This means that a change in domicile, whether intentional or inadvertent, can significantly affect whether a dependant has a viable claim.
By contrast, immovable property (such as real estate) is governed by the law of the jurisdiction where the property is located. As a result, an estate with assets in multiple jurisdictions may be subject to different legal regimes, potentially giving rise to numerous claims.
A Cautionary Example: Costa Rican v Ontario Law
The Ontario Superior Court’s decision in Bratusa v. Doersam, 2025 ONSC 4726. illustrates the central role of domicile in determining whether a dependant support claim can proceed in Ontario.
In Bratusa, the applicants – a mother and her minor child, who was the deceased’s daughter- sought dependant support under the SLRA from the estate of the deceased, who had been residing with the mother in Costa Rica prior to his death. The deceased had previously made a will in Ontario around 9 years before he moved to Costa Rica and had not updated his will to leave any provision for his new partner or their child.
Justice Myers concluded that the deceased had established Costa Rica as his domicile of choice. As a result, any entitlement to dependant support was to be determined in accordance with Costa Rican law, not Ontario’s SLRA.
That finding had significant consequences for the applicants. In particular, the deceased’s surviving partner faced a substantial barrier to recovery, as Costa Rican law did not recognize her as a “spouse” for the purposes of estate support. Although she had been living with the deceased at the time of his death, he remained legally married to another individual, and that formal marital status governed.
Important Considerations
As cross-border mobility becomes more common, domicile can have unintended and far-reaching consequences for estate planning and litigation.
Domicile can affect whether a dependant support claim is available at all. Even where a deceased was domiciled outside Ontario, Ontario courts may still have jurisdiction over real property located in the province, which can give rise to separate claims in respect of that asset. While choice of law clauses in wills may assist in providing structure, they do not displace the governing conflict of laws rules tied to domicile, particularly for immovable property.
These matters often involve complex and time-sensitive legal issues. For further information, contact Nadine Esaid, Associate Lawyer at Boardwalk Law at [email protected] or 365.747.3614.
