[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

Question, if you die without a will in Alberta does everything automatically transfer to your wife?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Intestate Succession Act, RSA 2000 c.c l-10

Spouse or adult interdependent partner and no issue
2 If an intestate dies leaving a surviving spouse but no issue or leaving a surviving adult interdependent partner but no issue, the intestate’s estate goes to the spouse or adult interdependent partner, as the case may be.

The reason behind this has nothing to do with people trying to draft their own wills, though that is a significant problem. Other provinces have already done this consolidation exercise and Alberta is just following the trend. B.C. did it in 2009, IIRC.

Wills and estates law is in a very unfortunate state. The problem is that it's extremely undervalued by the market (i.e. "I should be able to get a will for $X") while being a very complicated area in which long-standing jurisprudence has created a lot of strange and baffling rules from the layman's perspective. Given the myriad facts that can be involved in administration even experienced lawyers can easily mess this stuff up, and a word in the wrong place turns into a ticking time bomb for your insurance when the person dies and the will ends up in front of a court. For the little that you're being paid it's not a cost effective practice.