If a parent owed child support arrears when they died, can the estate be pursued for the unpaid amount?

Yes — unpaid child support arrears generally don't disappear just because the paying parent died. They're treated as a debt of the deceased, and the estate remains responsible for paying its debts before assets are distributed to beneficiaries, the same as an unpaid loan or credit card balance would be.

The support recipient, or the Family Responsibility Office where it has been enforcing the order, can generally pursue the arrears as a creditor's claim against the estate rather than through a fresh support application. This is a different kind of claim from a dependant support application under the Succession Law Reform Act — it's about collecting an existing, already-quantified debt, not asking a court to award new support based on need. An estate trustee who knows about outstanding arrears should account for that debt before distributing the estate, since paying beneficiaries first while a known debt sits unpaid can create problems for the trustee personally. Anyone owed arrears by a parent or former partner who has died should raise the debt with the estate trustee promptly and get legal advice on how to formally pursue it as a creditor.