Only 22% of Quebecers aged 25 to 50 who live in a common-law union make their de facto spouse their heir. In a Quebec where marriage remains much less popular than in many other places, this can have significant consequences on the financial health of widowed people.
Posted at 7:50 p.m.
These are some of the conclusions reached by researchers Maude Pugliese, Hélène Belleau and Camille Biron-Boileau, of the National Institute for Scientific Research, in an article which has just been published in the specialized journal Journal of Marriage and Family.
First thing to clarify: in life as in death, de facto spouses do not have the same protection as married people. Thus, in Quebec, regardless of the number of years that a common-law union lasts, a person does not automatically inherit a share of the patrimony of his spouse if the latter has not made a will or if he did not designate her as heir in his will.
However, the study, conducted with the assistance of a polling firm and with a sample of 3,246 people, demonstrates it well: people in common-law unions, particularly men, are much less likely to receive a bequest if they become widowed.
[Les conjoints de fait ayant un enfant d’une précédente union] also tend to protect their children rather than their spouse. They are less likely to bequeath to their partner if they have had children from another union than if they have children in common with their partner.
Maude Pugliese, professor at the INRS Urbanization Culture Society Center
While the number of years of living together increases the proportion of de facto spouses who are designated as heirs, this “remains low in absolute terms and in comparison with married people”. Only a little more than one in five people will inherit their de facto spouse, “while the spouse is an heir for 86% of married people,” says Ms.me Pugliese.
The low rate of de facto spouses designated as heirs in the event of the death of their lover is mainly due to the fact that de facto spouses are less likely to make a will than married people and that they will bequeath nothing to their spouse in this case. figure, unlike married people whose spouse is heir even when there is no will.
Big differences between men and women
Another observation: a married man will more often inherit his current spouse if he has had children born from a previous union, while married women and unmarried people more often have their children inherited from a previous union detriment of their current partner.
Mme Pugliese was not so surprised because other studies already show, she says, that “men, when they change partners, are more likely to change families, in a way”, and to favor the most recent.
30 years ago, notes Mr.me Pugliese, only 10% of children were born to an unmarried mother. “Today, this is the case for more than 60% of children. »
Why are de facto spouses less likely to make a will?
It is possible that upon getting married, married people are more likely to meet a notary who will make them aware of the importance of having one. It’s also not impossible that common-law spouses choose not to make a will to avoid having difficult conversations, or perhaps they themselves mistakenly believe that their spouse will inherit, even in the absence of a will. But these are just hypotheses.
Maude Pugliese, professor at the INRS Urbanization Culture Society Center
The conclusions of the study are important in the Quebec context where cohabitation is now more widespread than marriage among the younger generations, including among couples who intend to form a family and where blended families are so frequent.
Maude Pugliese is sorry that people are often misinformed of the legal consequences of their choices. “If we are 35 years old, our de facto spouse dies in an accident, he was the sole owner of the house and he had a child from a previous union, the child can become the sole heir”, she raises.
And even if neither spouse had children and the house belonged to both people, “his other half, without a will, will go to a member of his own family, his brother or sister, for example . In these cases, the family can ask for the value of half of the house to be paid to them”.
At a time when civil law reform has been in the air for years and scenarios are being studied, the researchers regret that Quebec still does not intend, like other provinces, to ensure that de facto spouses can automatically receive part of the inheritance.
A matter of consistency
Alain Roy, professor of law at the University of Montreal and expert advisor in the context of public consultations on the reform of family law, explains that it is for the sake of consistency that this approach was not adopted.
The committee he chaired favored a conjugal regime of the opt-in with respect to the division of property and the obligation of support between de facto spouses, that is to say that we retained the idea that a de facto union agreement or the signing of a joint form is required for mutual rights and obligations to apply.
The experts therefore considered “that there was reason to maintain this approach at the inheritance level. On both sides, therefore, nothing is automatic”, to avoid different logics within the same civil law.
It will be up to the government to decide.
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- 43%
- Proportion of Quebec households living common-law in 2021
Source: Statistics Canada