Best Estate Settlement Help for Common-Law Spouses in Quebec

If your partner just died and the two of you were never married, here is the hard truth that no one wants to be the first to tell you: under Quebec law, you inherit nothing from their succession by default. Not a share. Not the house. Not a portion of their savings. Quebec is the only province in Canada where a common-law (or de facto) spouse has zero automatic inheritance rights, no matter how long you lived together, how many children you raised, or how intertwined your lives were. The Civil Code of Québec simply does not treat you as a spouse for inheritance purposes.

That is the devastating part. But it is not the whole story. There are real, concrete benefits and assets a de facto spouse can still claim — some of them substantial, like the Retraite Québec Surviving Spouse Pension, which does recognize common-law partners even though the Civil Code does not. The difference between getting nothing and getting what you are entitled to comes down to knowing exactly where you stand and acting fast on the things that are still available to you.

This page explains what you are excluded from, what you can still claim, and how the Quebec Estate Settlement Guide helps de facto spouses navigate a system that was not built to protect them.

The reality: Quebec recognizes no common-law inheritance

In most of Canada, living together for a few years can give a surviving partner some claim against the estate. Quebec is different — and deliberately so. The province has resisted extending matrimonial and inheritance protections to unions de fait (de facto unions) for decades. The result is a sharp, unforgiving line: married and civil-union spouses have full rights; common-law partners have none under the law of succession.

Here is what that exclusion covers:

In short: if you are not named in a valid will, the law treats you as a legal stranger to your partner's estate.

What you CAN still claim as a de facto spouse

This is where the picture changes — and where most people leave money and benefits on the table because they assume "I get nothing" means "there's nothing to do." That is wrong. Several important entitlements run outside the succession entirely, and many of them do recognize common-law relationships.

1. The Retraite Québec Surviving Spouse's Pension (QPP)

This is the big one. The Québec Pension Plan (QPP) Surviving Spouse's Pension is available to de facto spouses — Retraite Québec applies its own definition of spouse, which is broader than the Civil Code's. Generally, you qualify as a de facto spouse for QPP purposes if you lived together in a conjugal relationship for at least 3 years, or for 1 year if you had a child together (by birth or adoption). The pension is a monthly benefit, and it does not depend on being named in any will. Apply as soon as possible — it is one of the few entitlements specifically designed to include you.

2. Life insurance with you as the named beneficiary

Life insurance pays directly to the designated beneficiary, completely bypassing the succession. If your partner named you on a policy, that money is yours regardless of the will or intestacy rules. Check every policy — employer group life, private policies, mortgage insurance, and association/credit-union coverage.

3. RRSP, RRIF, and TFSA beneficiary designations

Registered accounts can name a beneficiary directly (or pass via the will). Where you are the named beneficiary, those funds flow to you outside the estate. This is one of the most common ways de facto couples do provide for each other — so confirm what designations exist before assuming the worst.

4. Property you already jointly own

Assets you hold in joint names — a home registered to both of you, a joint bank account, a co-owned vehicle — are already partly yours by ownership, not by inheritance. Note: Quebec does not recognize "joint tenancy with right of survivorship" the way common-law provinces do, so a co-owned home passes the deceased's share into their succession (not automatically to you). Understanding the exact title structure on your home is critical, and it is one of the trickiest areas for de facto couples.

5. Government and workplace death benefits

The QPP death benefit (a one-time lump sum) is paid to whoever paid the funeral expenses or to the heirs — worth claiming if you covered the funeral. Workplace pensions and CNESST (if the death was work-related) may also provide survivor benefits depending on the plan's own rules, some of which recognize de facto partners.

The pattern is clear: the succession shuts you out, but direct designations and benefit programs can still deliver real value. The work is identifying every one of them and filing on time.

Who this guide is for

This guide is built for the partner the law forgot. It is for you if:

• You were in a common-law / de facto relationship and your partner has just died.
• You assumed you had spousal rights because of how long you'd been together — and have just learned, painfully, that you may not.
• You lived together 10, 20, or 30+ years and shared a home, finances, and children, but never legally married or entered a civil union.
• You need to know immediately which benefits to apply for and which deadlines you cannot afford to miss.
• You were named in your partner's will and need to understand what you actually inherit and how the succession process works.

Who this guide is NOT for

Be honest with yourself about your legal status, because it changes everything:

• Married spouses — you have full inheritance rights, family patrimony protection, and a legal-heir position. This guide's de facto framing doesn't apply to you (the broader Quebec Estate Settlement Guide still does).
• Civil union partners — a civil union (union civile) under Quebec law gives you the same inheritance and family patrimony rights as a married spouse. You are not a de facto spouse in the eyes of the law. You are protected.
• If you are unsure whether you formalized a civil union, check — it is a registered legal act, not the same as simply living together.

How the guide helps de facto spouses specifically

Free articles can tell you the law. They cannot tell you what to do next while you are grieving. The Quebec Estate Settlement Guide is an action plan, and it addresses the de facto situation head-on:

• It explains exactly where you stand — succession vs. outside-the-succession assets — so you stop wasting energy on claims you can't make and focus on the ones you can.
• It lists the benefits to apply for first, with QPP Surviving Spouse's Pension and the QPP death benefit flagged as time-sensitive priorities.
• It splits the two scenarios — named in a will vs. not named / no will — and walks you through each path, because your reality is completely different depending on which one applies.
• It decodes the Civil Code vocabulary through the included Terminology Reference Card, so words like liquidator, succession, legatee, and de facto spouse stop being a foreign language.
• It keeps you on schedule with the Key Deadlines Reference, so a missed filing window doesn't cost you a benefit you were actually entitled to.

The full guide includes a 12-chapter estate settlement guide, a First 48 Hours Checklist, the Civil Code Terminology Reference Card, a Succession Inventory Worksheet, and the Key Deadlines Reference — five files in total.

Guide vs. the alternatives

The smart play is rarely "guide or notary." It is guide first — to understand your position, apply for the time-sensitive benefits, and walk into any professional meeting organized — and then a notary only if the estate is contested, complex, or large enough to justify the hourly rate.

Tradeoffs to be honest about

• A guide is not legal representation. If a family member disputes your claim to jointly owned property, or you believe you were unfairly left out of a will, you will eventually need a notary or litigation lawyer. The guide gets you to that point faster and cheaper, but it cannot stand in for counsel.
• It can't change the law. Nothing in the guide will give a de facto spouse intestate inheritance rights — those simply don't exist in Quebec. What it does is make sure you capture everything that is available.
• Some outcomes depend on what your partner set up. Beneficiary designations and joint ownership were decisions made before death. The guide helps you find and claim them; it can't create them retroactively.

Frequently asked questions

Does it matter how long we lived together? For inheritance, no — the Civil Code gives de facto spouses no succession rights whether you lived together two years or forty. For QPP survivor benefits, yes — Retraite Québec generally requires 3 years of cohabitation (or 1 year if you had a child together). The two systems use completely different rules.

Can I contest the will? You can challenge a will on grounds like lack of capacity, undue influence, or improper form — but simply being left out as a de facto spouse is not a valid ground in Quebec, because you had no entitlement to begin with. If you suspect the will is invalid for other reasons, that's a question for a notary or litigation lawyer.

What about our house? It depends entirely on the title. If the home is in both your names, your share is yours by ownership — but the deceased's share passes into their succession, not automatically to you (Quebec doesn't apply survivorship the way other provinces do). If the home is in your partner's name alone and you aren't in the will, you have no automatic right to it. Confirming the exact registration is one of the first things to do.

Am I eligible for QPP survivor benefits? Likely yes, if you meet Retraite Québec's de facto cohabitation requirement (generally 3 years, or 1 year with a shared child). This is the single most important benefit for de facto spouses to apply for, and it's available even though you have no inheritance rights. Apply as soon as you can.

Were we "common-law married" without realizing it? No — Quebec has no concept of common-law marriage. Living together, however long, never converts into marriage or civil union automatically. If you wanted spousal legal rights, they required a formal marriage or a registered civil union. This is exactly the gap that catches so many couples off guard.

If I'm named in the will, what do I actually get? Whatever the will specifies — being named overrides your default exclusion. A de facto spouse named as a legatee inherits exactly what the will grants, on the same footing as any other named heir. The guide's "named in a will" track walks you through the liquidation process from there.

Losing a partner is brutal enough without discovering the law never counted your relationship. You can't change that — but you can make sure you claim every benefit, pension, and asset that is within reach, and that you do it before the deadlines close. The Quebec Estate Settlement Guide shows de facto spouses exactly where they stand and what to do next.

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