Probate in Canada: What It Is and How It Works

Probate is the court process that confirms a will is valid and formally authorizes the executor to manage and distribute an estate, and in Canada it is administered province by province rather than under one national law.

What probate actually is

Probate is a court proceeding, not a tax and not a formality performed by a lawyer alone. When someone dies leaving a will, the person named as executor generally cannot legally deal with banks, land registries, or investment firms until a court has confirmed two things: that the will is the deceased's last valid will, and that the named executor has authority to act.

The output of that court process is a certificate. Names vary by province, and using the right one matters when you are searching a court's website or a fee schedule.

• Ontario calls it a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee (with or without a will).
• British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island call it a Grant of Probate (or Letters of Administration if there is no will).
• Quebec does not use the word probate at all. It uses 'verification' (vérification) of a will, carried out by a notary or the Superior Court, and even that step is skipped entirely for a notarial will.

Whichever name applies, the underlying purpose is the same: it gives third parties (a bank, a land registry office, an investment dealer) the legal confidence to release the deceased's assets to the executor.

When probate is required, and when it is not

Probate is not automatic. Some estates never need it. A grant is generally required when:

• The estate includes real property registered solely in the deceased's name.
• A financial institution holding a significant account balance refuses to release funds without one (banks set their own internal thresholds, often in the tens of thousands of dollars).
• There is no will, so a court needs to appoint an administrator and confirm who is entitled to act.
• A beneficiary or creditor disputes the estate and a court order is needed to settle it.

Probate is often unnecessary, or the estate qualifies for a simplified process, when:

• Assets are jointly held with a right of survivorship (a joint bank account, a house held as joint tenants). These pass directly to the surviving joint owner by operation of law, not through the estate.
• A beneficiary is named directly on an RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, or life insurance policy. These proceeds go straight to the named beneficiary and bypass the estate (and probate fees) entirely, unless the estate itself is named as beneficiary.
• The estate is small. Ontario's Small Estate Certificate process, available since April 1, 2021, simplifies matters for estates valued at $150,000 or less. Several other provinces have their own reduced-fee or summary procedures for modest estates; check the applicable court's rules.

The general process

The mechanics are broadly similar across the common-law provinces, with Quebec following its own civil-law procedure.

1. Locate the will and confirm the executor. The named executor (or, if there is no will, the person entitled to apply, typically the closest next of kin) gathers the original will and death certificate.
2. Value the estate. All assets that pass through the estate are valued as of the date of death. This total determines the probate fee in most provinces.
3. Notify beneficiaries and, where required, next of kin. Several provinces require formal notice before or after the application is filed.
4. File the application with the applicable superior or surrogate court, along with the required affidavits, the original will, and the probate fee.
5. Pay the fee. Fees are calculated on the estate value in most provinces (see the table below) and are due when the application is filed.
6. Receive the grant. Once the court issues the certificate or grant, the executor can open an estate bank account, sell or transfer property, and begin administering the estate.
7. Administer and account. The executor (called an estate trustee in Ontario, or a liquidator in Quebec) pays debts and taxes, files the deceased's final tax return, obtains a clearance certificate from the Canada Revenue Agency before final distribution, and then distributes what remains to beneficiaries.

See our companion page on executor duties in Canada for a full walkthrough of what happens after the grant is issued.

How long does probate take?

Timelines vary by court workload and by how complete the application is. A straightforward, uncontested application with a clear will and cooperative beneficiaries often takes roughly four to twelve weeks from filing to grant in most provinces, though busier urban court registries can run longer. Add time on the front end to gather documents and value the estate, and add significantly more time if a beneficiary disputes the will, if the deceased died without a will (intestate), or if the estate includes foreign or complex assets.

An Ontario executor must also file an Estate Information Return with the province within 180 days of the certificate being issued, a separate deadline from the probate application itself.

Probate fees by province

Probate fees are court or administration charges calculated against the value of the estate passing through probate. They are not an inheritance tax, and Canada does not have one. The federal government instead taxes the deceased's estate on a deemed disposition of capital property at death (a separate topic from probate fees), and what beneficiaries actually receive is not itself taxed as income.

Figures change periodically. Always confirm the current fee against the province's own source before relying on it: Ontario's Estate Administration Tax page, the BC Probate Fee Act, and Quebec's guide to probating a will. See our detailed Ontario probate fees page for a full worked example, or use the Canada probate fee calculator to estimate a fee for any province.

Quebec's notarial-will exception

Quebec is the clearest illustration that probate is a formality tied to how a will was made, not an unavoidable tax on dying. Quebec recognizes three kinds of wills: notarial, holograph (entirely handwritten and signed, no witnesses), and wills made before witnesses.

A notarial will is prepared and executed by a Quebec notary, kept in the Register of Testamentary Dispositions, and treated as an authentic act. Because a notary has already verified the testator's identity and capacity at signing, a notarial will requires no court or notarial verification after death, and no fee is charged for that step.

A holograph will or a will made before witnesses has not gone through that authentication process, so after death it must be verified, either by a Quebec notary or by the Superior Court, before the liquidator (Quebec's term for executor) can act. That verification carries a modest fixed fee, unrelated to the size of the estate, separate from whatever the notary bills for their own services.

Related reading: wills, probate, and estates in Canada, executor duties in Canada, Ontario probate fees explained, and the Canada probate fee calculator to estimate a fee for your province.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about probate in Canada and is not legal advice. Probate fees, thresholds, and procedures change and vary by province. Consult the applicable provincial court or a licensed lawyer or notary for advice on a specific estate.