At the time of publication, there was a contradiction in the law of Alberta regarding marital property. If a marriage dissolved, each spouse would be presumed to have contributed equally to the marriage (barring evidence to the contrary), and therefore to be entitled to an even share of the marital property, regardless of the name on title. On the other hand, if one spouse died before the other, he or she would have complete freedom to give away any property with his or her name on title. In order to remedy this contradiction, this report suggests modification to the Matrimonial Property Act, RSA 1980, c M-9 to allow surviving spouses to bring actions to recover parts of the estate of a their deceased spouse.