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ARTICLE · 11 AUGUST 2025

Estate Planning For Common Law Spouses

Sorbara Law
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If you are in a common-law relationship, it is important to review your estate plans and prepare your estate planning documents so that you can control how your assets...

CanadaFamily and Matrimonial
Elikem Deley
Elikem Deley

If you are in a common-law relationship, it is important to review your estate plans and prepare your estate planning documents so that you can control how your assets will be distributed upon your death. This is especially true if you intend to include your common law spouse in your estate plans.

Section 29 of the Family Law Act (FLA) defines a common law spouse as two people who are not legally married but have cohabitated in a conjugal relationship for not less than three years, or have cohabitated for at least one year if they have a child together.

Without proper estate planning, common-law spouses can find themselves in difficult and disappointing circumstances when one of them dies. Whether you want to leave your common law partner with some or all of your estate, or you are recently separated and wish to exclude them from your estate plans, unless you clearly express your intentions in formal documents, such as a Will and/or a domestic contract (like a

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