All About Estates
By Ophely Karam
March 12th, 2026
Dying Intestate —without a Will— in Québec: A Masterclass in Making Life Harder for your Minor Heirs
There are many ways to complicate your loved ones’ lives after your death. Dying intestate in Québec when you have minor children is one of the most efficient.
From the outside, legal devolution under the Civil Code of Québec (“CCQ”) looks orderly, even comforting, as it establishes clear rules, predictable outcomes, and a legislated safety net for heirs. In reality, when an estate involves minor heirs, those same rules can become a procedural obstacle course that is full of delays, authorizations and oversight bodies. Add immovable property to the mix, and what could have been a straightforward estate settlement turns into a slow-moving legal puzzle.
Legal devolution does not ask whether assets should be staggered over time, whether one child has special needs, or whether liquidating a family home makes any sense. It distributes ownership, not solutions.
A properly drafted Will does not just distribute property. It reduces legal intervention, preserves value, and gives families room to breathe at a moment when they least need bureaucratic complexity.
Dying without a Will in Quebec, when you have minor children, isn’t just unfortunate — it’s a failure of planning that plays out in very specific, very predictable, and very preventable ways.
