Quebec's new Act respecting remittance of deposits
of money to account co-holders who are spouses or former
spouses (also known as the Remittance of
Deposits Act) 1 (the
"Act"), is generating interest.
The Act was passed in June 2022 and will come into force on
December 8, 2022.
The purpose of the Act is to allow a surviving spouse or former
spouse to take his or her share of a joint or co-owned account
(i.e., an account with "co-holders", as the Act puts it)
relating to the deposit of money in Quebec, it appears simply by
presenting a death certificate, so long as the spouses had
deposited (prior to the death) a declaration with the financial
institution setting out the respective ownership share of the
parties with respect to the account. This will save some time when
accessing the account post-death as although an official Quebec
death certificate will almost certainly be required (this can take
a few months to obtain), there does not seem to be the need
