The Probate Process (PE)

Updated Apr 5, 2024
Show Table of Contents Courthouse for estate probate

In PE, the term probate refers to the court-supervised process of settling a person's affairs after his or her death. This court-supervised process typically lasts more than a year (sometimes multiple years), and involves a number of legal steps.

In PE, the person responsible for settling an estate is called an executor if there is a will, or an administrator if there is no will... and the term personal representative covers both situations. Many people nevertheless refer to the role as an executor, and the bulk of this guide will use that term generically.

Is Probate Necessary?

When someone dies, his or her belongings and obligations are collectively known as his or her "estate".  Every estate must be "settled", meaning obligations resolved and belongings distributed to the rightful heirs – but not every PE estate must go through probate.

In most cases, if the estate contains only assets that do not require probate (see Probate Exclusions below) or the remaining estate is considered "small", then full probate is not required (although some still choose to go through probate – see Benefits below).

See Settling Small PE Estates for state-specific rules about bypassing or minimizing probate.

Is a Lawyer Required?

In most cases, the decision to retain a lawyer is up to the executor: see Do I Need a Lawyer?

Note that even if the executor does hire a lawyer, the executor will still personally have a lot to do, and EstateExec will still be very useful in terms of tracking assets, expenses, and more.

Probate Process

Probate details vary somewhat by province, but there are many common elements. While it is sometimes possible to settle an estate without going through probate, many of the basic concepts are the same whether or not the court is involved:

Executor probate infographic

Appointment: The first step is to get the court to formally appoint you as executor (or personal representative, or administrator, or trustee, or whatever local term is used). This step requires filing documents with the court, notifying potentially interested parties, and obtaining a probate bond if required. See Becoming an Executor for details, and Probate Forms.

Estate Inventory: You will need to provide the court with an official inventory of estate assets. Often, an initial version of this inventory will be required along with the probate application, but this inventory can be updated later if additional information comes to light. See Taking Inventory.

In Each Province: Personal property (such as a bank account or coin collection) is generally probated in the decedent's legal province of residence, but real estate is probated where the property is physically located. Certain classes of personal property, such as vehicles that are registered and titled out of province, may also need to be probated in the jurisdiction where the property is domiciled. If there are multiple real properties in a single province, you can probate them all in the same probate court, but if the decedent owned property in multiple provinces or internationally, you'll have to go through the settlement process in multiple locations (see Ancillary Probate).

Creditor Notification: It is best practice to notify creditors of the probate process so they know to submit claims, and many provinces require such notification for estates within their jurisdictions. See Finding Debts.

Family Entitlements: A surviving spouse and other dependants often have rights to the estate that can supersede the terms of a will or even legitimate claims of creditors. In some cases you are legally obligated to inform the spouse of those rights, and in most you are required to wait a certain amount of time to let the spouse decide whether to make any claims. See Family Entitlements.

Debt Resolution: Once you understand the overall financial situation of the estate, you must attempt to resolve all debts. See Resolving Debts.

Tax Payments & Clearance Certificate: You must file a tax return for the decedent's final year of life, and for the estate. It is best practice to then apply for a CRA Clearance Certificate before distributing any assets to heirs See Paying Taxes.

Asset Distribution: Once you have resolved all debts and paid any taxes due, you distribute the remaining assets to the rightful heirs. See Making Distributions.

Passing of Accounts: The final probate step is usually the passing of accounts, in which you submit a final accounting report of estate financials to the court for approval. See Final Accounting Report.

Example first page of Final Accounting report for estate probate settlement

Probate Exclusions

A number of asset types are generally exempt from the probate process:

  • Assets with named beneficiaries, such as
    • Life insurance policies (unless the beneficiary is the estate itself)
    • Retirement plans (e.g., RRSPs, LIRAs)
    • Trusts (that existed prior to death)
    • Funds held in Payable-On-Death (POD) account
    • Securities registered in a transfer-on-death (TOD) form
    • Real estate subject to a transfer-on-death (TOD) deed
    • Vehicles registered in a transfer-on-death (TOD) form
  • Jointly owned assets, such as
    • Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship
    • Property held in community property with right of survivorship
  • Sundry low-value household items

Costs and Fee Calculator

Probate court fees can vary from $0 to $100,000+ depending on estate province and value. In addition, it's common to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers and accountants – and since lawyers and accountants typically charge by the hour, having your information well-organized via EstateExec will likely pay for the EstateExec licensing fee many times over.

In Prince Edward Island, probate fees are quite reasonable, and depend on the gross value of the estate subject to PE probate.

For estates worth >$100K, the calculation rounds up estate value to the nearest thousand, as per statute. If you are using EstateExec, it will automatically calculate asset value for you, excluding assets not subject to PE probate (such as RRSPs with beneficiary designations or real property you have indicated is located outside of PE).

See Probate Act, RSPEI 1988, c P-21, s 119.1.

Gross ValueProbate Fee
Up to $10K$50
$10K - $25K$100
$25K - $50K$200
$50K - $100K$400
>100K0.4%

PE Public Trustee

In Prince Edward Island, you may have the option to pay the Public Trustee to probate the estate (see Prince Edward Island Public Trustee).

Court Location

It can sometimes be difficult to determine which court to use for a given estate, and the particular type of court that oversees the probate process varies by province.

In Prince Edward Island, the Estate Court of the Supreme Court handles probate and estate administration (see court locations).

As noted above, remember that real property must be probated in the province in which it is physically located, so you may need to go through probate in multiple provinces.

Benefits

If probate is required, one clear benefit of probate is that you will be following the law. However, even if probate is not required, it can help shield you from potentially unhappy heirs, and it will also get you a document commonly known as your "Letters" (sometimes known as Letters of Probate, Letters of Administration, Letters Testamentary, etc.), which will make it easier for you to prove your authority when dealing with third parties such as banks.

Additional Information

See EstateExec Reference: Manage Probate for instructions using EstateExec during the probate process, including identifying assets subject to probate, generating Inventory Reports, and more.

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