Day: 15 July 2026

Part 2 of 2: Inheritance, Claims, and the Traps in the Timing

In Part 1 we dealt with the threshold question: who is an adult interdependent partner (“AIP”) under the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act, SA 2002, c A-4.5 (“AIRA”), and when that status begins and ends. Three points from that post carry the weight of this one:

1. You can acquire the status without signing anything — three years of living together in a relationship of interdependence is enough (AIRA s 3(1)(a)(i)), and it need not be a romantic relationship.
2. A married but separated person can have an AIP while remaining legally married (AIRA s 5(2)) — so two people can have claims at once.
3. Separation does not end the status. Absent a written agreement or a declaration of irreconcilability, your former partner remains your AIP for one year and a day (AIRA s 10(1)(b)).

Now the consequences. Alberta’s succession legislation treats a surviving AIP, in most respects, exactly as it treats a surviving spouse.

Continue reading “Your Adult Interdependent Partner and Your Estate”

Part 1 of 2: The Status — How You Get It, and How You Lose It

Most Albertans still say “common law.” The legislature stopped using that language more than twenty years ago.

Since 1 June 2003, the relationship Alberta law recognizes outside marriage is the adult interdependent relationship, and the person you are in it with is your adult interdependent partner — an AIP. The governing statute is the Adult Interdependent Relationships Act, SA 2002, c A-4.5 (“AIRA”).

This is not a change in vocabulary. AIP status carries real consequences for property, support, and — the subject of Part 2 of this series — your estate. And the thing that catches people out is this: you can acquire the status without signing anything, without a ceremony, and without ever intending it. There is no registry to check, no certificate to produce, and no requirement that you even know the legislation exists.

This post deals with one question only: who is an adult interdependent partner, and when does that stop being true? Part 2 takes up what it means when one of you dies.

The three routes into the status

Continue reading “What Is an Adult Interdependent Partner in Alberta?”