Seperated NOT Divorced....spouce dies!!

[kathnich]

Hello everyone,

I am new here, and just trying to find some info on seperation and divorce with respect to Estate Law and the Family Law Act!

My ex and I seperated in 1992 and signed a seperation agreement in 1997, however, we never did file for divorce. He has since passed away, so my question is as the legal spouce do I have any rights to the estate even though we had a seperation agreement?

Is it true that even though couples agree when a seperation agreement is signed the terms can still be changed before final divorce?

Thanks in advance for any help or thoughts anyone can offer!

Confused

[logicalvelocity]

kathnich,

welcome to the forum,

My ex and I separated in 1992 and signed a separation agreement in 1997, however, we never did file for divorce. He has since passed away, so my question is as the legal spouse do I have any rights to the estate even though we had a separation agreement?

That is a very good question. Without actually seeing the separation agreement, it is difficult to answer. Generally most legal separation agreements have clauses and releases the parties from each other estate after the separation agreement is signed. Most separation agreements and terms of same survive Divorce. If the separation agreement has no such clause, then I would suspect that you may have a potential claim with some merit against the other parties estate. An example being is if they had a pension, you may be entitled to some sort of widow's benefit. I believe CPP has same. One thing to note is that CPP is not bound by separation agreements! and can only follow their own directives.

Another relevant document would be the other parties Last Will or codicil. Do you have a copy of same?

lv