Investment Executive
By James Langton
May 28th, 2025
An Ontario court has ruled that the investment accounts of a man who died without a will should go directly to his common-law spouse, rather than into his estate, as argued by his estranged daughter.
According to a decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, when Giuseppe Lagana died in January 2021 without a will, he had about $200,000 in a pair of investment accounts — a mutual fund account and a GIC — which held the proceeds from the sale of his home in British Columbia. A dispute arose over whether the accounts belonged to his estate, as his estranged daughter argued, or should go to his common-law spouse, who was listed as a joint owner on the accounts.
The court noted that, in the absence of a will, there’s a presumption that the accounts are subject to a resulting trust in favour of the estate. However, Lagana’s common-law spouse, Ingrid Niwranski, argued that he intended for the accounts to go to her. The court said the two sides agreed that “the doctrine of resulting trust applies in this case,” and that Niwranski “must rebut that presumption” to successfully argue that the accounts should go to her rather than into his estate.
Ultimately, the court sided with Niwranski, ruling that the evidence “has rebutted the presumption of resulting trust.”
“It seems unlikely that Giuseppe Lagana made a decision to not make a will knowing that the result would be a gift by way of intestate succession to [his daughter],” the court noted, adding that “… it was more likely that Giuseppe Lagana intended to gift the investment accounts to [Niwranski],” it said. As a result, the court issued an order declaring Niwranski to be the sole owner of the investment accounts.
