Does Everything Go to Your Spouse When You Die?

Many couples assume that when one of them dies, everything simply passes to the other. It's an understandable assumption. It's also, in a lot of cases, not what happens.

TL;DR: Assets tend to travel by three different routes. Jointly-owned property and accounts with a named beneficiary usually pass directly to the survivor. Much of the rest goes under the will — and without a will, provincial rules generally step in, which rarely means handing the whole estate to the spouse. In some provinces, a common-law partner may inherit little or nothing without a will naming them. This is an area where it's worth getting advice on your own situation.

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A note before we start. I'm not a lawyer. This is my reading of what's published on the topic — government material, estate-law firms, industry summaries, linked so you can check them yourself. Estate rules differ by province and turn on details specific to a family, so treat this as a prompt to speak with an estate lawyer or notary, not a substitute for it.

This article covers where the assets go. For what happens to the household's income — one OAS ending, a capped CPP survivor benefit, and the shift to single tax brackets — see when one spouse dies.

Three routes, not one

First, the word doing most of the work here: the estate. Loosely, it's what someone leaves behind that has to be administered — gathered up, debts and final taxes paid, the remainder distributed, usually by an executor through a court process called probate. (Quebec differs: a succession, a liquidator, and notarial wills generally skip probate — Éducaloi.)

What matters is what the estate doesn't include. Assets that already have somewhere to go — a jointly-owned home, an RRSP with your spouse named on it — generally pass outside it, without waiting for probate.

So "goes through the estate" and "goes to my spouse" aren't the same thing, and neither is automatic. That distinction is most of this article.

Route 1: Directly to the survivor, outside the estate

A home owned in joint tenancy with right of survivorship generally transfers to the surviving owner automatically. In most cases the right of survivorship takes precedence over the will, and the property doesn't form part of the estate (Manulife).

Registered accounts and insurance policies with a named beneficiary or successor holder typically go to that person directly. (The CPP survivor pension works differently again — it's applied for, not inherited.)

Property held as tenants in common tends to behave differently — that share usually passes through the estate instead.

These are the assets that often reach a survivor relatively quickly.

Route 2: Under the will

Much of the rest generally passes according to the will — the house if it wasn't jointly held, non-registered investments, personal property, and anything without a beneficiary designation on it.

This is the part people usually picture when they think about estates, and it tends to work as intended where the will exists and is current.

Route 3: Provincial rules, if there's no will

Without a will, provincial intestacy rules generally decide — not the surviving partner. And those rules rarely hand the whole estate over.

As an illustration, in Ontario a married spouse may receive what's often called a preferential share — reported as the first $350,000. Beyond that, published summaries describe the remainder being divided roughly like this:

• With one child, the spouse takes about half the remainder
• With two or more, the spouse takes about a third, and the children share the rest

(WEL Partners.) Other provinces set their own thresholds and formulas, and the details can turn on facts specific to a family.

The practical consequence is what tends to catch people off guard: a surviving spouse may find themselves sharing an estate with their own adult children — sometimes including the family home.

Common-law partners: the gap can be wider

This is where the assumption is riskiest, because the answer depends heavily on where you live.

In some provinces — Ontario and New Brunswick among them — intestate inheritance has generally been limited to legally married spouses. Where that's so, a long-term common-law partner may inherit little or nothing without a will naming them, however many years you shared a home.

Elsewhere it differs. Published summaries describe British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as generally treating qualifying common-law partners as spouses; Alberta applying its Adult Interdependent Partner rules; and Quebec's Civil Code not recognising common-law relationships for inheritance in the way many people expect (Willful).

This is where I'd be most cautious about my own summary. The rules change and turn on definitions — how long you've lived together, whether there are children, how the relationship is characterised where you live. If this is your situation, it's very much worth confirming with an estate lawyer or notary rather than relying on any general summary, including mine.

Two things that catch people

Beneficiary designations override the will

For the accounts they cover, the designation generally carries the day — where a will says one thing and an older form says another, the form is typically what governs.

That makes a stale designation quietly consequential. A former partner still named on an old policy or RRSP may end up receiving money the will intended for someone else. Worth pulling up the actual designations rather than assuming they match your intentions.

Probate can take time

Where assets do pass through the estate, they may not arrive quickly — probate can take months, and costs vary by province.

That's why a survivor's short-term cash position is worth thinking about separately. Jointly-held and beneficiary-designated assets reach them soon; the rest may not, at exactly the point when funeral costs and final tax bills arrive.

The registered accounts, briefly

Two account rules are worth knowing, because the paperwork changes the outcome:

• An RRSP or RRIF can generally transfer to a surviving spouse or common-law partner without tax on the transfer itself, where they're a qualifying survivor and the funds move to their own registered plan (CRA). Deferred isn't forgiven: the survivor then takes over the annual minimum withdrawals, taxable as their income — on a larger balance, filed on a single return.
• A TFSA named to a spouse as successor holder generally keeps its tax-exempt status without touching the survivor's own contribution room. Named only as beneficiary, it typically stops being tax-exempt at death, and growth after that date may become taxable (TaxTips).

Those two designations sound alike but can lead to quite different outcomes — worth checking which one is on your accounts.

What's worth doing while it's calm

None of this needs to be dramatic. A short review, done once, covers most of it:

• Whether there's an up-to-date will — and whether it still reflects your intentions
• How the home is owned (joint tenancy vs tenants in common)
• The beneficiary and successor-holder designations on registered accounts and insurance
• Whether any designation is stale — a former partner, a deceased relative, an estate named by default
• For common-law couples, whether your province extends inheritance rights automatically

As I said at the top, this isn't something I can settle for you — wills and provincial estate rules belong with an estate lawyer or notary. Reviewing them while both partners can be part of the conversation tends to be easier than sorting it out afterwards.

What a plan can show is the financial shape of what's left: whether the survivor's income still covers their spending once one OAS ends and the tax treatment changes. A free RetireZest account lays out your plan year by year — income, taxes, and how long the money lasts. (The survivor scenario itself is one of the Premium scenarios.) You're welcome to run your plan — free, no credit card.