700 plain-language Q&As about wills & estates. Browse below, or search the whole library.
It can, and a properly executed cohabitation agreement releasing estate claims is generally more likely to be enforced than an informal or undocumented…
Read the full answer →A complete estate plan for an Ontario adult typically includes three core documents: a will, a power of attorney for property, and a power of attorney…
Read the full answer →Yes. In Ontario, only a legally married spouse has automatic inheritance rights if a partner dies without a will — a common-law partner gets nothing…
Read the full answer →In Ontario, a common-law partner has no automatic right to inherit from your estate if you die without a will. The intestacy rules in the Succession…
Read the full answer →A surviving common-law partner who is left out of an estate — because there is no will, or because a will leaves them nothing — does not automatically…
Read the full answer →Several recurring mistakes cause wills to fail or produce unintended results in Ontario. The most common is improper execution — wrong number of…
Read the full answer →Yes. A beneficiary who can't get satisfactory information from an estate trustee informally can apply to the Superior Court to compel a formal passing…
Read the full answer →Yes. An estate trustee (or proposed estate trustee) facing an outstanding Notice of Objection isn't required to simply wait indefinitely. They can…
Read the full answer →When a beneficiary objects to the compensation an estate trustee is claiming during a passing of accounts, it's a judge of the Superior Court who…
Read the full answer →A charity generally isn't obligated to accept a gift on terms it doesn't want, so if it refuses the condition attached to your gift, the outcome…
Read the full answer →Yes — most dependant support claims settle by consent rather than going to trial. Ontario civil litigation generally encourages parties to negotiate a…
Read the full answer →Yes. Where two or more separate court applications have been started over the same estate or the same will — for example, competing probate…
Read the full answer →Yes, in a serious enough case. Contempt is a genuinely significant step reserved for clear, deliberate defiance of a court order — it isn't the court's…
Read the full answer →If the person challenging a will dies before the dispute is resolved, the challenge doesn't automatically end just because that person is no longer…
Read the full answer →Where more than one family member wants to be appointed guardian, or family members disagree about whether a specific person is the right choice, the…
Read the full answer →Yes. In Ontario, a person who has a legitimate interest in an estate — such as a beneficiary, a dependant, or someone who believes they should have…
Read the full answer →Yes. In Ontario, beneficiaries have the right to object to executor (estate trustee) compensation at the passing of accounts. The passing of accounts…
Read the full answer →In Ontario, a will can be challenged in court on several established legal grounds. The most common are: lack of testamentary capacity, undue…
Read the full answer →A contingent beneficiary is a backup beneficiary who receives the asset if the primary beneficiary has already died or is unable to receive it at the…
Read the full answer →Yes, shares in a private Ontario corporation are subject to special considerations in an estate. Like other capital property, they are subject to a…
Read the full answer →Failing to attend a mandatory mediation session in an Ontario estate dispute is taken seriously by the courts, because the requirement exists precisely…
Read the full answer →A person who discontinues an Ontario will challenge partway through generally becomes responsible for the other side's costs incurred up to that point,…
Read the full answer →Costs in a contested Ontario guardianship application are decided by the court based on the circumstances, rather than following one automatic rule,…
Read the full answer →Contesting a will in Ontario is a litigation process and can be expensive. Costs depend on the complexity of the case, the grounds being argued (lack…
Read the full answer →In most passing-of-accounts applications, the legal and accounting costs of preparing and presenting the accounts are treated as a proper expense of…
Read the full answer →Yes. While estate litigation has a history of courts sometimes ordering costs paid out of the estate rather than by the losing party personally, that…
Read the full answer →Rejecting a reasonable settlement offer and then doing worse at trial can have real costs consequences in Ontario. Ontario civil litigation, governed…
Read the full answer →Costs in a removal application aren't automatic in either direction — the court has discretion, and the outcome usually depends on how the application…
Read the full answer →If a court finds that a beneficiary's objection to a passing of accounts was unreasonable — for example, raised without real evidence, pursued after it…
Read the full answer →An unsuccessful removal application doesn't automatically mean the beneficiary who brought it has to personally cover the executor's costs, but it's a…
Read the full answer →Applying to become a court-appointed guardian of property under Ontario's Substitute Decisions Act generally starts with an application to the Superior…
Read the full answer →The exact administrative role can vary somewhat by court office, but the core point is that a passing of accounts is ultimately a Superior Court…
Read the full answer →Yes - an estate trustee who has made genuine, documented efforts to find a missing beneficiary and still cannot locate them can apply to the Superior…
Read the full answer →In a guardianship or other capacity-related proceeding, a court can direct that an independent, qualified person visit and assess the individual whose…
Read the full answer →Both are possible. The Canada Pension Plan death benefit is a federal, one-time lump-sum payment, and it's generally paid to the deceased's estate…
Read the full answer →In Ontario, an executor is responsible for identifying and paying the deceased's legitimate debts before distributing the estate to beneficiaries.…
Read the full answer →No - an estate trustee is generally not under a strict legal obligation to carry out a specific cremation-versus-burial preference, even if it's…
Read the full answer →Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum if a business owner is diagnosed with a covered serious illness, which is different from life insurance,…
Read the full answer →Potentially, yes - being a US citizen can carry US tax filing obligations that follow the person regardless of where they live or what role they're…
Read the full answer →Yes. The lawyer who prepared a contested will is often one of the most important witnesses in an Ontario will dispute, since they can speak directly to…
Read the full answer →In a cross-purchase structure, the surviving shareholders personally buy the deceased shareholder's shares from their estate, and each shareholder…
Read the full answer →Often, yes, but this depends on the exchange's own internal policy rather than any Ontario law written for cryptocurrency. Because there is no statute…
Read the full answer →Generally, yes, on the same basis as other capital property. Under the federal Income Tax Act, a person's capital property is generally deemed to be…
Read the full answer →You generally have six months from the date the court issues the estate trustee's Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee — commonly called a…
Read the full answer →Generally, yes — these are two distinct rights, and a surviving spouse can potentially pursue both. A Part V dependant support claim under the SLRA…
Read the full answer →If the sole executor named in a will dies before completing the estate administration, the estate cannot simply be left unmanaged. The question of who…
Read the full answer →In principle, yes — assets like shares the deceased held in a private corporation, or a shareholder loan the corporation owed back to the deceased…
Read the full answer →Yes, a surviving spouse can pursue both at the same time — they're legally distinct proceedings with different tests, and bringing one doesn't require…
Read the full answer →It depends — an Ontario court has discretion over how a dependant support award interacts with what that same person would already receive as a…
Read the full answer →A dependant support award is generally treated as a distribution of estate assets, not as a special, separately taxed category of payment — it's paid…
Read the full answer →Potentially, yes — a dependant support award can affect ODSP eligibility in much the same way a direct inheritance can, because ODSP is a means-tested…
Read the full answer →Generally, yes. A dependant support award is paid out of the estate, so unless the estate has some untouched source of funds, ordering support usually…
Read the full answer →When an estate faces claims from several kinds of dependants at once — say a former spouse, a common-law partner, and children — the court doesn't…
Read the full answer →Sometimes, yes. Part V of the SLRA includes provisions letting a court, in certain circumstances, treat property that passed outside the estate — such…
Read the full answer →There's no fixed rule. In Ontario civil and estate litigation, costs generally follow the outcome, meaning an unsuccessful claimant can be ordered to…
Read the full answer →It can, but only against what's actually left. SLRA s.61(2) gives Ontario courts discretion to let a dependant support claim proceed even after the…
Read the full answer →Sometimes, yes — but it isn't automatic. Life insurance proceeds paid to a named beneficiary normally pass directly to that person, outside the estate…
Read the full answer →Generally, everyone with a real stake in the estate — the estate trustee, and typically the other beneficiaries named in the will or entitled on an…
Read the full answer →Yes. Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act allows certain dependants of a deceased person to make a claim against the estate for adequate support if the…
Read the full answer →It's possible, but jurisdiction becomes a real, fact-specific question the moment an estate is being administered outside Ontario. A dependant support…
Read the full answer →The six-month limitation under SLRA s.61(1) runs from the grant of probate or letters of administration regardless of the dependant's age, so it…
Read the full answer →It's possible, though courts generally look for ways to avoid an outright forced sale where they can. A dependant support award comes out of the…
Read the full answer →Either, or a combination of both — it depends on what fits the estate and the dependant's actual needs. Under Part V of the SLRA, courts have…
Read the full answer →There's no fixed ranking that puts one type of dependant ahead of another — an Ontario court weighs everyone's circumstances together and decides…
Read the full answer →Potentially, yes — an estate trustee who distributes the estate without regard to a known or likely dependant support claim can end up personally on…
Read the full answer →Yes, generally. Under Part V of the SLRA, a court deciding a dependant support claim has broad discretion not only over how much support to award, but…
Read the full answer →Yes, generally — a dependant's standard of living before the death is one of the practical realities a court looks at, though it's weighed alongside…
Read the full answer →In Ontario, certain people cannot simply be cut out of an estate without recourse. The Succession Law Reform Act gives "dependants" the right to apply…
Read the full answer →A living trust (also called an inter vivos trust) is set up and operates while you are still alive. A testamentary trust, by contrast, is created by…
Read the full answer →Yes, a will can be structured to name different executors responsible for assets in different provinces, similar in spirit to how some Ontario estate…
Read the full answer →It's generally a good idea, even though Ontario law does not require it. A digital asset clause typically does two things: it confirms the executor has…
Read the full answer →Digital assets in an estate can include social media accounts, email accounts, cloud storage, online banking, subscription services, domain names,…
Read the full answer →If your adult child receives ODSP or similar means-tested benefits, naming them directly as the life insurance beneficiary generally isn't the best…
Read the full answer →Yes — living with the deceased isn't a requirement. Under Part V of the SLRA, a "dependant" includes the deceased's child, including an adult child, if…
Read the full answer →A person who started a will challenge in Ontario, whether by filing a Notice of Objection or a formal court application, can generally discontinue it…
Read the full answer →Yes, generally. Where testamentary capacity is genuinely in issue, a party to an Ontario will challenge can seek production of the deceased's relevant…
Read the full answer →A discretionary family trust is commonly used to hold shares of a private family business so that a trustee, rather than each child directly, controls…
Read the full answer →Family disagreements about a loved one's personal care are unfortunately common, and Ontario law has mechanisms to resolve them. The outcome depends on…
Read the full answer →Technically, an Ontario executor can distribute estate assets before receiving a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) tax clearance certificate — there is no…
Read the full answer →Grandchildren do not automatically inherit from your estate under Ontario's intestacy rules — but they can inherit indirectly through a legal principle…
Read the full answer →No. A holograph will in Ontario does not require any witnesses. To qualify as a holograph will under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act, the document…
Read the full answer →Ontario introduced a simplified court process for smaller estates. Estates below a certain value threshold may qualify to use a simplified application…
Read the full answer →"Passing of accounts" means asking the Superior Court of Justice to formally review and approve how an estate trustee has managed the estate's money…
Read the full answer →Not always, but probate is commonly required in Ontario when an executor needs to deal with institutions such as banks, investment firms, or land…
Read the full answer →Possibly, but not through intestacy, and not automatically. Married spouses get a property equalization claim under Part I of the Family Law Act;…
Read the full answer →In Ontario, divorce revokes gifts and executor appointments to a former spouse under a will — but it does not automatically revoke beneficiary…
Read the full answer →No. Unlike marriage, divorce does not automatically revoke your entire will in Ontario. However, it does have a significant and automatic effect on…
Read the full answer →Generally, no — registered accounts like RRSPs and TFSAs pass outside your estate if you have named a beneficiary directly on the account. The…
Read the full answer →Marriage no longer revokes a will in Ontario, but separation and divorce work differently — they do not cancel the whole will, but they do cancel what…
Read the full answer →No. Since January 1, 2022, marriage no longer revokes an existing will in Ontario. Before that date, marriage automatically revoked a previously made…
Read the full answer →Yes. For a will to be valid in Ontario, the testator must have had "testamentary capacity" at the time of signing. This means they must have understood…
Read the full answer →Ontario does not have a separate provincial "estate tax." What many people call an estate tax in this province is actually the estate administration…
Read the full answer →Ontario can recognize wills made in other countries, but the process depends on where the will was made, what type of assets are involved, and whether…
Read the full answer →No. Ontario law does not require a will to be notarized to be valid. What the law requires for a formally witnessed will is that the testator sign in…
Read the full answer →Ontario temporarily permitted remote will signing and witnessing via videoconference during a specific period related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The…
Read the full answer →An Ontario will can address foreign property, but whether it is effective depends on the laws of the country where the property is located. Real estate…
Read the full answer →Yes. A power of attorney for property automatically ends when you die. Once you pass away, your attorney no longer has any authority to act on your…
Read the full answer →Yes, in most cases the value of an RRSP is included in the deceased's income in the year of death and taxed accordingly. The full fair market value of…
Read the full answer →If you die without a will in Ontario, the Succession Law Reform Act sets out a fixed formula for distributing your estate. For someone with both a…
Read the full answer →Generally, yes. A domain name registration and a monetized website are treated as property of the deceased and, in principle, pass into the estate…
Read the full answer →Links go to the official consolidated text. Legislation changes — confirm you are reading the current version.
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