Beyond the sensational headlines, predatory marriage is real – and doctors should be paying attention.

By Julia G. Kirkham

In a well-publicized case of predatory marriage in Canada , Hunt v. Worrod, a 50 year old man who sustained a severe brain injury in an ATV accident, making him incapable of managing his finances and personal care. He married a woman with whom he had been in an on again off again relationship only a few days after being discharged from hospital and unbeknownst to his two sons. By the time they discovered their father missing and found him later the same day, a wedding had already happened, orchestrated, and attended by the bride and her relatives. His sons challenged the marriage on the grounds that their father did not have the capacity to make a decision to marry. The marriage was voided in a ruling helped by an unusually large (compared to similar cases) amount of medical evidence describing Mr. Hunt’s cognitive problems.

Marriage for the purpose of gaining financial advantage – control of money or property, in life or after death – is known as predatory marriage. The term is not common in clinical practice but is well known in legal circles. Still, many physicians will have encountered an actual or suspected predatory marriage in practice. Such relationships are often news and tabloid fodder due to the societal fascination with the usual suspected predatory marriage situation: a younger woman marrying a much older, wealthier man. (For what might be the most famous example of allegedly predatory marriage, see Anna Nichole Smith, who at 26 married 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, resulting in a long battle over his estate after his death just a little over a year later.)

Beyond the headlines, predatory marriage is a form of financial abuse with many real consequences, monetary and otherwise, and can involve a victim of any age, sex or gender, and same sex couples. Experts in estate law believe that predatory marriages are on the rise not only in Canada but also elsewhere. This is owing to a perfect storm of demographic and economic trends: around $750 billion dollars that stands to be inherited over the next decade (making for great incentive for would be predators). And an aging population that is living longer than ever before is making conditions that may impair capacity, especially dementia, more common. But predatory marriage is ultimately made possible by laws that reflect an outdated understanding of what it means to marry, and, in turn, what is needed to have the capacity to make a decision (or not) to marry, as well as inconsistent legal protections across Canada.

Physicians and other healthcare providers, especially those who provide care to patients with higher risk of impaired capacity at any age, should take note. Realistically, stopping or preventing a predatory marriage is often impossible. But this should not be taken as an inability to do anything. Like in other types of abuse where there are ethical and other responsibilities even when it may not be possible to directly or immediately intervene, physicians and other healthcare workers can act in other ways that protect incapable individuals from the consequences of predatory marriage or support the autonomy of those who are capable of making a decision to marry. A first step is being aware of and alert to this emerging medicolegal issue.