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LEGAL REPORT: WILLS & ESTATE S archaic 'forest of statutes' B.C. modernizes Bill 4 is the first major reform of succession law in the province since the 1920s. BY SUSAN HUGHE S R ecently, the B.C. legislative assem- bly passed the Wills Estates and Succession Act. Bill 4 consolidates the Wills Act, the Estate Administration Act, the Probate Recognition Act, and several provincial laws that deal with the passage of property upon death, including such will substitutes as insur- ance and retirement savings plans ben- eficiary designations. The first major reform in B.C. succession law since the 1920s, the bill also brings the law in line with changes in modern life. Growing out of the Succession Law Reform Project instituted by the British Columbia Law Institute with the sup- port of the attorney general, Bill 4 aims to transform an archaic area of the law, which was formerly a "forest of statutes," through consolidation and modernization. "It's an area of law that's generally not on the radar screen of legislators and an area of law that everyone comes into contact with," says Greg Blue of the British Columbia Law Institute. "It makes some significant changes in the law of wills and intestacy. It does tend to bring the statutory law of succession in British Columbia into line with the general trend of reform that's going around the Commonwealth, a general trend that's persisted over the past two decades. It makes the law more acces- sible, and organized in a more rational fashion." One major change is in the law when someone dies without having 42 NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com made a legally valid will. "As far as the law of intestacy goes, the position of the surviving spouse is substantially improved in terms of both the prefer- ential share and the ordinary share that the spouse has after the preferential share is satisfied," says Blue. "Ontario and Saskatchewan and a couple of other provinces have generally moved in the same direction, giving the surviving spouse a larger share of the estate when there's a surviving spouse and chil- dren." Blue says s. 2 of the bill also rede- fines spouse. "The definition of spouse extends to people who would be spous- es for other purposes under B.C. laws and that is generally if you have been in a marriage-like relationship for a DARCY MUENCHRATH