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ARTICLE · 03 JULY 2018

Alberta: New Pension Rights For Common-law Spouses

Miller Thomson
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As a result of a recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, common-law spouses in Alberta now (finally) have the right to divide pension benefits on relationship breakdown.

CanadaEmployment and HR
Kim Ozubko
Kim Ozubko
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As a result of a recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, common-law spouses in Alberta now (finally) have the right to divide pension benefits on relationship breakdown. In this blog post, we discuss the change.

The Old Rules

Under the Employment Pension Plans Act (Alberta) ("EPPA"), pension partners can agree to divide benefits on relationship breakdown, subject to the restrictions in the EPPA and the Matrimonial Property Act (Alberta) ("MPA"). Until recently, the right to enter into such agreements was restricted to married spouses because the MPA applies only to married and formerly married spouses. As a result, Alberta common-law spouses were unable to enter into an agreement to divide pension benefits.

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