What is the test for removing a person's name as a beneficiary under a life insurance policy?

In Roberts v. Martindale, [1996] B.C.J. No. 1743 (S.C.), a wife had designated her husband as beneficiary under her employer’s group life insurance policy. The husband left the wife shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and the wife’s sister nursed her until she succumbed to the disease. The wife did not change the designation of her husband as beneficiary. The trial judge found that the wife despised her former husband and would not allow his name to be spoken in her presence. Their separation agreement contained releases of interests in each other’s estate and a general release of all claims. The deceased’s friends and colleagues testified at trial that the deceased had told them that she had organized her affairs so that her sister would “get everything”. There was also evidence that three days before her death, the deceased told her sister and her niece that it was not necessary to complete a change of beneficiary designation for her group life insurance policy because she had “taken care of it”. From this evidence, the trial judge found as a fact that the deceased believed she had done what was required to remove her husband as the named beneficiary under the policy.