Only 22% of cohabiting Quebecers aged 25-50 name their de facto spouse as their heir. In a Quebec City where marriage remains much less popular than in many other places, this can have significant implications for the financial health of widowed people.
Posted at 7:50 p.m
Louise Leduc The press
These are some of the conclusions drawn by researchers Maude Pugliese, Hélène Belleau and Camille Biron-Boileau from the National Institute for Scientific Research in an article just published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
First of all, it should be made clear: in life as in death, spouses do not enjoy the same protection as married people. For example, in Quebec, regardless of the number of years of cohabitation, a person does not automatically inherit part of their spouse’s property if the spouse has not made a will or designated them as heirs in their will.
However, the study, conducted with the support of a polling firm and a sample of 3,246 people, shows it well: people in common law unions, especially men, are much less likely to receive a legacy if they are 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 pass it on to their partner if they have children from another partnership than if they have children with their partner.
Maude Pugliese, Professor at the INRS Urbanization Culture Society Center
The number of years of cohabitation does increase the proportion of de facto spouses who are designated as heirs, but this “remains small in absolute terms and compared to married couples”. Just over one in five people will inherit their de facto spouse, “while the spouse is an heir for 86% of married people,” specifies Ms. Pugliese.
The low rate of de facto spouses being designated as heirs in the event of the death of the loved one is mainly due to the fact that de facto spouses are less likely to draw up a will than married persons and that they will leave nothing to their spouse in the process whose spouse is heir without a will.
Big differences between men and women
Another observation: a married man is more likely to inherit his current spouse if he has children from a previous partnership, while married women and unmarried people are more likely to inherit their children from a previous partnership at the expense of their current partner.
Ms Pugliese wasn’t that surprised because other studies already show, she says, that “when men change partners, in some ways, men are more likely to change families” and prefer the newer one.
Ms Pugliese points out that 30 years ago only 10% of children were born to unmarried mothers. “This is the case for more than 60% of children today. »
Why are de facto spouses less likely to make a will?
It is possible that married people are more likely to meet a notary after marriage, who will make them aware of the importance of a notary. It’s also possible that common law spouses might not make a will to avoid difficult discussions, or perhaps themselves mistakenly believe that their spouse will inherit even in the absence of a will. But these are only hypotheses.
Maude Pugliese, Professor at the INRS Urbanization Culture Society Center
The study’s conclusions are important in the context of Quebec, where cohabitation is now more widespread than marriage among younger generations, including among couples planning to start a family, and where mixed families are so common.
Maude Pugliese regrets that people are often misinformed about the legal consequences of their decisions. “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 partnership, the child can become the sole heir,” she points out.
And even if neither spouse had children and the house belonged to both individuals, “his other half wills by testament to a member of his own family, such as his brother or sister . In these cases, the family can ask for the value of half the house to be paid to them.”
At a time when civil law reform has been in the air and scenarios being explored for years, the researchers regret that Quebec does not intend to ensure that de facto spouses can automatically receive a portion of the inheritance like other provinces.
A matter of consistency
Alain Roy, a law professor at the University of Montreal and an expert adviser in connection with public consultations on family law reform, explains that this approach was not taken for reasons of consistency.
The committee he chaired advocated an opt-in marriage law regarding property division and maintenance between de facto spouses, d A form is required to assert mutual rights and obligations.
The evaluators were therefore of the opinion “that there is reason to maintain this approach at the inheritance level. Nothing is therefore automatic on either side”, in order to avoid different logics within the same civil law.
The decision rests with the government.
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43% Share of Quebec households living under the common law in 2021
Source: Statistics Canada