When your husband, wife or partner passes away, you're grieving, and you're also the person everyone turns to for decisions. If you can't think straight right now, that's normal.
Here's what to do when your spouse passes away, in the order it needs doing. Only three things are urgent in the first days: calling a cremation or funeral provider, getting copies of the death certificate, and making sure you can still pay the household bills. Your survivor's pension, the house and the estate can wait weeks, and some of it can wait months.
What's different for a spouse is that much of the paperwork touches your own income and the things you owned together. This checklist covers surviving spouses in Ontario and Quebec, including common-law and de facto partners. Where the provinces differ, each gets its own section.
What to do when your spouse passes away: the checklist at a glance
Nobody expects you to do all of this in one week. Here's roughly when each step is due.
| Step | When | Ontario | Quebec |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call a cremation or funeral provider | First day | Same in both provinces | Same in both provinces |
| Get death certificates | First week | Your provider registers the death; certificates come from ServiceOntario | Your provider sends the declaration of death; certificates come from the Directeur de l'état civil |
| Check which bank accounts you can use | First week | Joint accounts with your spouse usually become yours | Ask the bank in writing for your share of joint accounts |
| Stop your spouse's pension payments | First month | CPP and OAS: Service Canada | QPP: Retraite Québec. OAS: Service Canada |
| Apply for the survivor's pension | First few months | CPP, through Service Canada | QPP, through Retraite Québec |
| Apply for the death benefit | First few months | CPP, up to $5,000 | QPP, up to $2,500 |
| Move RRSPs and RRIFs into your name | Within about a year | Same (federal rules) | Same (federal rules) |
| Settle property and the estate | First 6 months | If married: 6 months to choose an equalization payment | If married or in a civil union: the family patrimony is split first |
| File your spouse's final tax return | Usually by April 30 of next year | Federal return only | Federal return plus a Revenu Québec return |
This week: only what can't wait
The first days are about your spouse's care, not paperwork. If you can, ask someone to sit with you while you make the calls.
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Call a cremation or funeral provider
In a hospital or care home, the staff will ask which provider to call. At home, call your spouse's doctor or palliative team if you knew the death was coming, or 911 if it came suddenly. Our step-by-step checklist for the first days after a death in Ontario covers each situation, and there's a matching guide for the first days after a death in Quebec.
At Cleo, a real person answers 24/7, in English or French. The cremation is one fixed, all-inclusive price, death certificates included, and there's no catch: the final bill matches the quote you get on the first call. See what's included and current pricing.
Order more death certificates than you think you'll need
Banks, insurers, pension plans and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) may each want a copy. Ask your provider how many copies the price includes and how to order more.
Don't close the joint accounts yet
You'll still need to pay the rent or mortgage, the groceries and the utilities. What you can use depends on your province:
- Ontario: a joint account you held with your spouse usually becomes yours right away, through the right of survivorship. The bank needs a death certificate to take your spouse's name off.
- Quebec: there's no right of survivorship. Since December 2022, the bank must pay you your share when you ask in writing: half, unless you filed a different split before the death. The rest waits for the liquidator.
Our guide to joint bank accounts after a death has the details. If you were only an authorized user on your spouse's credit card, the bank will cancel the card, and the balance is a debt of the estate, not yours.
Let other people make some of the calls
Ask one person you trust to tell friends, extended family and your spouse's employer. Calls to companies and subscriptions can wait until after the cremation.
In the first few months: your income, savings and taxes
Thinking about money so soon can feel wrong. It isn't: some of these payments replace income your household relied on. None of them is due this week, but a few limit back payments, so start within the first month or two.
Stop your spouse's pension payments
You'll usually have to repay pension payments made for the months after the death. Tell Service Canada about the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS), and Retraite Québec about the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP). Our guide on how to notify the government after a death lists every agency and form.
Apply for the survivor's pension
The survivor's pension is a monthly payment, for life, to the spouse of someone who contributed to the CPP or QPP. The amount depends on your age and your spouse's contributions.
- CPP (outside Quebec): you qualify if you were married, or lived together as common-law partners for at least one year. Apply to Service Canada. See the CPP survivor's pension on Canada.ca.
- QPP (Quebec): you qualify if you were married or in a civil union, or lived together as de facto spouses for three years (one year if you had a child together). There's no deadline, but Retraite Québec pays back at most 11 months before your application, according to its guide for surviving spouses.
If you're between 60 and 64 and your income is low, ask Service Canada about the OAS Allowance for the Survivor too.
The death benefit: usually $2,500 for a surviving spouse
The death benefit is a one-time payment toward funeral costs. The CPP pays up to $5,000, but the second $2,500 applies only when no spouse qualifies for a survivor's pension and the person never received a CPP pension. So most surviving spouses in Ontario receive $2,500. The QPP pays up to $2,500. Either way, it's taxable. Here's how to apply for the CPP death benefit, and how to apply for the QPP death benefit in Quebec.
These forms are where many spouses get stuck. Cleo stays on for months after the cremation to help families fill in the CPP and QPP paperwork and close out loose ends.
Life insurance, workplace pensions, RRSPs and TFSAs
A few more places may owe you money: your spouse's employer, any workplace pension plan and any life insurer. Many pay a survivor benefit, but only if you apply. If you're the named beneficiary, you can usually move your spouse's RRSP or RRIF into your own, tax-deferred, generally by the end of the year after the death. If you're the named successor holder of a TFSA, it continues in your name.
Your spouse's final tax return
For a death between January and October, the final return is due April 30 of the following year. For a death in November or December, it's due six months after the death. In Quebec, a provincial return goes to Revenu Québec as well.
If you live in Ontario: the house, the estate and your rights
You don't need to sort out the house this week, but one Ontario deadline is worth knowing about now. Property you owned jointly, like a home held as joint tenants, usually passes straight to you, outside the will.
If you were married
If your spouse left a will, you can take what it leaves you, or choose an equalization payment under Ontario's Family Law Act instead. You usually have to act within 6 months of the death, and you can't have both, so talk to a lawyer first. Community Legal Education Ontario explains the choice in plain language.
If there's no will, a married spouse receives the first $350,000 of the estate (for deaths since March 1, 2021), plus a share of the rest if there are children.
If you were common-law partners
This part can be hard to read. It says nothing about your relationship; it's how Ontario's law is written. A common-law partner in Ontario has no automatic right to inherit without a will and can't claim an equalization payment. You may be able to ask the court for support as a dependant. These claims have time limits, so see a lawyer soon.
If you live in Quebec: the house, the estate and your rights
In Quebec, your rights depend on your status: married, civil union, or de facto spouses.
If you were married or in a civil union
Quebec's estate terms can feel like a second language, so here they are in plain words. Before anyone divides the estate, the law splits the family patrimony, usually in half. It includes the family home, the furniture, the family car, and pension credits built up during the marriage. Your matrimonial regime then sets how you share the rest. The liquidator, often the surviving spouse, settles the succession, and a notary can search the will registries and walk you through the steps.
If you were de facto spouses
This can be painful to learn, and it says nothing about what your relationship was. A de facto spouse doesn't inherit without a will, however long you lived together, and the family patrimony doesn't apply. Rules introduced in 2025 protect some parents whose child was born or adopted after June 30, 2025. A notary can tell you whether they apply to you.
Questions families ask
Common questions from a surviving spouse
What benefits does a surviving spouse get in Canada?
The main ones are the CPP or QPP survivor's pension, a monthly payment for life, and the death benefit, a one-time $2,500 for most spouses. Between ages 60 and 64 with a low income, you may also qualify for the OAS Allowance for the Survivor. Check for workplace pension and life insurance benefits too.
Do I get my husband's CPP when he passes away?
Not his full pension. You get a CPP survivor's pension, which is a portion of what he earned. The amount depends on your age and on whether you already receive your own CPP pension. If you do, Service Canada combines the two, up to a maximum.
Do I need to update my own will?
Yes, when you're ready. Your will, your power of attorney and the beneficiaries on your RRSP, TFSA and life insurance probably still name your spouse. Updating them keeps your own wishes clear. It doesn't have to happen this month.
You don't have to do this alone
When your spouse passes away, only a few things matter right away: their care, copies of the death certificate, and knowing you can pay the bills. The pensions, the accounts and the estate will still be there in a few weeks.
When you're ready to arrange the cremation, one call is enough. We handle the transfer, the paperwork and the cremation itself, and we stay on for months afterward to help with the CPP and QPP forms. A real person answers 24/7, in English or French.
(438) 817-1770