Alberta Common-Law Partner Dies Intestate With a $1.2M Estate and Adult Children From a Prior Marriage: What the Survivor Inherits Under 2026 Provincial Rules

The Fact Most Alberta Common-Law Couples Don’t Know

A Calgary couple lives together for 20 years. They share a home, a bank account, holidays with each other’s families. He has two adult children from a first marriage. He dies at 68 without a will.

Under Alberta’s Wills and Succession Act, Part 3, his common-law partner receives nothing from the intestate estate. The adult children inherit everything that passes through probate. Twenty years of shared life, and the law treats her as a stranger to the estate.

This is not a technicality. It is the default rule in Alberta when someone dies without a will and has surviving descendants who are not also descendants of the surviving partner. The partner — called an “adult interdependent partner” (AIP) under Alberta law — has no automatic inheritance right on intestacy in this scenario. She can file a dependant’s relief claim, but that requires a court application, legal fees, and a judge’s discretion. It is not an entitlement.

Canada Has No Inheritance Tax — But the Estate Still Owes CRA

Before getting into who inherits what, the tax picture matters. Canada eliminated its federal estate tax in 1972. There is no tax on receiving an inheritance. But the estate owes income tax on two things:

• Deemed disposition: Under section 70(5) of the Income Tax Act, all capital property is deemed sold at fair market value at the moment of death. Any accrued capital gains are taxed on the deceased’s terminal return — 50% inclusion on the first $250,000 of gains, 66.67% (two-thirds) inclusion on gains above $250,000 (post-2024 federal budget).
• RRSP/RRIF inclusion: The full balance of any RRSP or RRIF is included as income on the terminal return — unless it rolls over tax-free to a surviving spouse or common-law partner.

Provincial probate fees also apply, but in Alberta these are capped at a flat $525 regardless of estate size — effectively negligible. The real tax hit is the income tax on deemed disposition and the RRSP inclusion.

The $1.2M Estate: Asset-by-Asset Breakdown

Here is the estate we’re working with — a realistic composition for a Calgary homeowner in his late 60s:

The outcome swings by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on two details most people never think about: how title is held on the home, and whether a beneficiary is named on the RRSP.

The Home: Joint Tenancy vs Tenancy-in-Common Changes Everything

If the Calgary home is held as joint tenants, it passes to the surviving partner by right of survivorship the moment of death. It does not enter the estate. It does not go through probate. The intestacy rules never touch it. She keeps the $600,000 home outright.

If the home is held as tenants-in-common, his 50% share ($300,000) falls into the estate. Under Alberta’s intestacy rules, the adult children from the prior marriage inherit that $300,000. The surviving partner keeps only her own 50%. One word on the land title — “joint” versus “common” — changes the outcome by $300,000.

Here’s the part most couples miss: when unmarried partners buy property together in Alberta, the default on the land title is not automatically joint tenancy. You have to specify it. If nobody asked at closing — and plenty of buyers don’t — tenancy-in-common may be the default, and the surviving partner loses half the home to intestacy.

The $400K RRSP: Beneficiary Designation and the Tax Trap

An RRSP with a named beneficiary passes directly to that person outside the estate. No probate, no intestacy rules. If the surviving partner is named as RRSP beneficiary, she receives the $400,000.

But there’s a tax layer that most people don’t see coming. Under the Income Tax Act, the full $400,000 RRSP balance is included as income on the deceased’s terminal return. The only exception is the spousal rollover — if the RRSP beneficiary is a surviving spouse or common-law partner as defined by the ITA (lived together in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 continuous months), the RRSP can roll into the survivor’s own RRSP tax-free, deferring the tax until she eventually withdraws.

In this scenario — a 20-year common-law relationship — the surviving partner almost certainly qualifies under the federal definition. The spousal rollover applies. The $400,000 moves into her RRSP with $0 immediate tax. This is one of the most valuable tax provisions in the entire estate.

The $200K Non-Registered Account: Intestacy Takes It All

The non-registered investment account has no beneficiary designation mechanism (unlike an RRSP or TFSA). It passes through the estate and is subject to Alberta’s intestacy rules.

Under Part 3 of the Wills and Succession Act: when the deceased has surviving descendants who are not also descendants of the surviving adult interdependent partner, the AIP receives nothing on intestacy. The adult children from the prior marriage inherit 100% of the $200,000.

Before they receive it, the estate pays tax on the deemed disposition. If the $200,000 account has an adjusted cost base of $120,000, the accrued gain is $80,000. Under the tiered capital gains inclusion (50% on the first $250K of gains), the taxable amount is $40,000. At a marginal rate of roughly 38% in Alberta on that income layer, the capital gains tax is approximately $15,200. The children inherit roughly $184,800 after the estate pays the deemed-disposition tax.

Alberta’s Adult Interdependent Partner Act: What Rights It Actually Grants

Alberta doesn’t use the term “common-law partner” in its provincial legislation. Instead, the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act creates the category of “adult interdependent partner” (AIP). You qualify as an AIP if you’ve lived with someone in a relationship of interdependence for at least 3 continuous years, or have a child together, or have signed an AIP agreement.

The AIP designation grants real rights in some areas of Alberta law — family property division, certain pension benefits, and the right to file a dependant’s relief claim. But it does not create an automatic inheritance right on intestacy when the deceased has surviving descendants from another relationship. This is the gap. The couple had all the hallmarks of a committed partnership. The law does not treat them as equivalent to a married spouse for intestacy purposes in this specific scenario.

Probate Fees: Not the Problem in Alberta

Alberta charges flat surrogate court fees capped at $525 regardless of estate size. On this $1.2M estate, probate costs $525. For comparison:

In Alberta, probate is almost a rounding error. The real cost of dying without a will here isn’t the probate fee — it’s the intestacy distribution that sends assets to the wrong people.

The Tax Bill on the Terminal Return

Assuming the surviving partner qualifies for the spousal RRSP rollover (she does — 20-year conjugal relationship), here’s the estate’s tax picture:

• RRSP: $400,000 rolls to surviving partner’s RRSP tax-free under ITA spousal rollover. $0 tax now.
• Family home: If jointly held, passes by survivorship — no deemed disposition triggered on the surviving partner’s half. The principal residence exemption eliminates the gain on his half (assuming it was the family’s principal residence). $0 tax.
• Non-registered investments: $80,000 capital gain (FMV $200K minus ACB $120K). At 50% inclusion, $40,000 is taxable. Tax at ~38% marginal = approximately $15,200.
• Alberta probate: $525

Total estate taxes and fees: approximately $15,725. That’s an effective rate of about 1.3% on a $1.2M estate — remarkably low. The tax is not the problem. The distribution is the problem. The surviving partner of 20 years could lose $200,000 or more to intestacy rules she didn’t know existed.

Dependant’s Relief: The Surviving Partner’s Court Option

Alberta’s Wills and Succession Act, Part 5, gives the surviving AIP one recourse: a dependant’s relief claim. This is a court application to the Court of King’s Bench asking that the estate provide adequate maintenance and support for the surviving partner.

The court considers:

• The nature and duration of the relationship (20 years weighs heavily in her favour)
• The survivor’s needs, means, and earning capacity
• The size of the estate and the claims of other beneficiaries
• Contributions the survivor made to the deceased’s welfare or estate
• Any agreements between the parties

A dependant’s relief order is discretionary. The judge may award a lump sum, periodic payments, or a right to occupy the home. But it is not guaranteed, it takes months to resolve, and legal costs typically run $5,000–$25,000 depending on whether the adult children contest it. The surviving partner is fighting for what a $500 will would have given her automatically.

How a Will and Domestic Partner Agreement Would Have Changed Everything

The entire scenario reverses with two documents:

1. A will naming the surviving partner as primary beneficiary (or specifying the split between partner and children). Cost: $500–$1,500 with an Alberta estate lawyer.
2. An adult interdependent partner agreement formalizing the relationship under Alberta law. Cost: $200–$500. This removes any ambiguity about the relationship’s legal status and strengthens the surviving partner’s position for spousal rollovers and benefit claims.

With those two documents plus a confirmed RRSP beneficiary designation and joint tenancy on the home, the surviving partner keeps the full $1.2M in assets. Without them, she could receive as little as $300,000 from a 20-year relationship — and the remaining $500,000+ goes to adult children she may have helped raise.

The planning cost is under $2,000. The value at stake exceeds $600,000. There is no scenario where “we’ll get to it eventually” is the right answer.