What Insurance Do You Need When You Get Married?

Marriage changes your insurance in a way that’s easy to miss: it changes who depends on you and who is legally connected to your finances. Nothing on your existing policies updates itself.

The practical list for newlyweds in Ontario is short. Name your spouse as beneficiary on every policy and registered account. Combine your health and dental plans so claims coordinate. Buy or top up life insurance if you now share a mortgage, rent or plans for children. Make sure you each have disability insurance. Insure the honeymoon. Update your wills, because in Ontario marriage no longer does that for you.

This guide is for couples getting married or moving in together in Ottawa or anywhere in Ontario. We’ll go through what changes, what to do about it, and what the coverage costs.

Update your beneficiaries first

This is the ten-minute task that matters most. A beneficiary designation is a standing instruction to the insurer, and marriage doesn’t alter it. If your term policy from age 25 still names your mother, your mother gets the payout. If a policy names a former partner, the former partner does.

Go through every account with a designation:

• Individual life insurance policies
• Group life insurance and accidental death coverage through work
• RRSPs, TFSAs, pensions and locked-in accounts
• Any critical illness policy with a death benefit or return-of-premium feature

Name your spouse as primary beneficiary and consider a contingent beneficiary in case you die together. Naming a person rather than “my estate” keeps the payout outside probate, which in Ontario carries an Estate Administration Tax of roughly 1.5% on estate value above $50,000. Our guide on choosing a life insurance beneficiary covers the edge cases, including designations that may be required by a separation agreement.

Combine your health and dental plans

If you both have workplace benefits, marriage is the moment to link them. Most group plans treat marriage as a life event that lets you add a spouse as a dependant, usually within a set window (often 31 days). Miss it and you may wait for open enrolment or answer health questions.

Once you’re each a dependant on the other’s plan, coordination of benefits kicks in. Your own plan pays first on your claims; your spouse’s plan then covers some or all of the remainder, up to the total eligible cost. A dental crown reimbursed at 50% under one plan can end up close to fully covered with two.

Three notes:

• If one of you has a much better plan, it may still be worth keeping both. The second plan’s premium share is often small compared with what it reimburses.
• Check whether your plans charge a separate premium for family coverage versus single. Sometimes one family plan plus opting out of the other is the cheaper combination.
• If one of you is self-employed or on contract with no plan, being added as a dependant on the other’s group plan is usually the simplest fix. If neither of you has a plan, see our guide to health and dental insurance for the self-employed in Ontario.

Life insurance: two people, two policies (usually)

Before marriage, life insurance for a single person with no dependants is optional. After it, the case gets clearer with every shared obligation: a lease, a mortgage, a car loan, a plan to have children, or one spouse who earns much more than the other.

How much?

Enough to clear shared debts and replace the income your spouse would lose, for as long as they’d need it. A couple with a mortgage and no children might settle on $250,000–$500,000 each; a couple planning a family soon should size for that future and buy the coverage while they’re young and healthy. The how much life insurance do I need? guide has a worksheet.

Joint or separate?

	Two separate term policies	Joint first-to-die	Joint last-to-die
Pays	On each death, separately	Once, on the first death, then ends	Once, on the second death
Coverage after first death	Survivor keeps their own policy	None (survivor must reapply)	Continues until second death
Sizing	Tailored to each income	One amount for both	One amount for the estate
If you separate	Each keeps their own	Must be split or cancelled	Must be split or cancelled
Typical use	Most couples under 55	Occasionally for mortgage cover	Estate and tax planning
Cost	Slightly more than joint first-to-die	Slightly less than two policies	Lower per dollar than two permanent policies

For most couples in their 20s, 30s and 40s, two separate term policies are the better fit. The small saving from a joint first-to-die policy rarely justifies losing the survivor’s coverage. Joint last-to-die makes sense later, typically as permanent coverage for estate taxes. See joint vs. single life insurance for couples.

Group coverage isn’t a plan

Employer life insurance is commonly one or two times salary and ends with the job. Treat it as a top-up.

Disability and critical illness: the ones newlyweds overlook

Two incomes covering one set of bills feels safe until one income stops. An illness or injury that keeps one spouse off work for a year is far more likely during a career than a death, and it doesn’t come with a payout unless you’ve arranged one.

Disability insurance

Check what each of you has:

• Group long-term disability through work. Find out the benefit percentage, whether it’s taxable, and when the definition switches from own-occupation to any-occupation (often after two years).
• EI sickness benefits: 55% of insurable earnings up to the annual cap, for up to 26 weeks. Useful, but short.
• CPP Disability: only for severe and prolonged disabilities, and modest.

Anyone self-employed, on contract, or in a job with weak group coverage should price an individual policy. Benefits are tax-free when you pay the premiums yourself, typically 60–70% of income. See how much disability insurance do I need?

Critical illness insurance

A critical illness policy pays a tax-free lump sum on diagnosis of a covered condition (cancer, heart attack and stroke are the most common claims) after a survival period, commonly 30 days. For a couple, the benefit is practical: it funds the healthy spouse taking time off, covers treatment costs OHIP doesn’t, and keeps the mortgage current during a bad year. Consider it after life and disability coverage are in place. See critical illness vs. life insurance.

Travel insurance for the honeymoon

OHIP pays only very small amounts toward medical care outside Canada, and nothing toward trip cancellation. For a honeymoon:

• Emergency medical is essential, especially for the United States and cruises.
• Trip cancellation and interruption is worth it for a trip you’ve paid for months in advance. Weddings get postponed; so do honeymoons.
• Credit card coverage may help but often has short trip limits, age limits and pre-existing condition rules. See does your credit card travel insurance actually cover you?

If you’re taking a trip and the flights are already booked, buy the policy now: cancellation coverage generally needs to be purchased shortly after you book. Our travel insurance page has the options.

Wills, common-law and Ontario law

Two Ontario-specific points, both worth confirming with a lawyer:

Marriage no longer revokes a will. Before 2022, marrying automatically cancelled an existing Ontario will. That rule was repealed, so an old will naming someone else stays valid until you change it. Write a new one.

Common-law partners don’t inherit automatically. If you’re living together but not married and one of you dies without a will, Ontario’s intestacy rules do not give the surviving partner a share of the estate. Beneficiary designations and a will are the only way to ensure your partner receives anything. See do I need life insurance and a will?

Life insurance paid to a named beneficiary is generally received tax-free and outside the estate either way, which is why getting the designations right is step one.

What it costs: indicative figures for a couple

These are illustrations for healthy non-smokers. Real premiums depend on age, health, smoking status, occupation, insurer and the coverage chosen.

Coverage	Age 30	Age 35
Term life, $500K, 20-year (male)	roughly $20–$30/mo	roughly $25–$38/mo
Term life, $500K, 20-year (female)	roughly $17–$25/mo	roughly $21–$32/mo
Critical illness, $100K, 20-year	roughly $25–$45/mo	roughly $35–$60/mo
Individual disability	roughly 1–3% of insured income	roughly 1–3% of insured income

A couple in their early 30s can typically put $500,000 of term life on each of them for a combined $40–$65 a month. Smokers pay roughly 1.7–2.5 times more, and every five years of waiting raises the price; see life insurance rates at age 30 and at age 35.

Next step: a short timeline, then a call

When	Task
As soon as flights are booked	Buy honeymoon travel insurance with cancellation coverage.
1–2 months before	Apply for term life (and disability if needed) so it’s approved before the wedding.
Within 31 days after	Add your spouse to your group benefits; update all beneficiary designations.
First few months	Sign new wills and powers of attorney. Review coverage amounts if you’re buying a home or planning children.

Hayes Family Insurance is a family-run brokerage on Preston Street in Ottawa, licensed across Ontario. We help couples sort out beneficiaries, compare joint and separate coverage, and place policies with the insurer that prices each of you best out of 30+ Canadian companies. Our advice costs nothing; insurers pay us.

Compare quotes from 30+ Canadian insurers in about two minutes, free and with no obligation. Or contact us and we’ll go through both of your existing policies together.