What Is an Estate Inventory in an Alberta Probate Application?

When you apply for a grant in Alberta, you are asked to set out what the person owned and owed. That list is called the inventory. It can feel daunting, especially while you are grieving, but it is mostly an organized record of what you find.

This article explains what the inventory is, who receives it, how values are set and what comes after the grant is issued.

This article covers the law of Alberta.

What the inventory is

The inventory is a statement of the estate's assets and liabilities. It supports the first core task of a personal representative, which is to identify the estate's assets and liabilities. In the Alberta court forms it is Form GA2, and it goes along with the application for a grant, which is Form GA1.

It is different from the accounting that comes later. The later financial statements show what was received, paid out and distributed over a period. The inventory is the starting snapshot.

What to list and how values are set

Valuing property and debts as of the date of death is a listed task for personal representatives. That means you work out what each item was worth on the day the person died, not what it is worth later when you sell it.

• Bank and investment accounts, supported by letters or statements of account.
• Land, supported by a current certified copy of the certificate of title.
• Contents of any safe-deposit box, which the Act lists as a task to record.
• Debts and expenses that need to be paid.
• Shares and other holdings, supported by certificates, dealer letters or company letters.

Some items may need a professional valuation, such as real estate or a business. Whether that applies to your estate depends on the assets, and a lawyer or accountant can help decide.

Who receives the inventory, and when

The notice of application must be accompanied by the application in Form GA1, and an inventory in Form GA2 must be served on residuary beneficiaries, beneficiaries on intestacy and persons described in s. 11 of the Estate Administration Act. An affidavit of service in Form GA5 must be filed within 30 days after service.

Section 11 also requires the applicant to serve a copy of the application and a notice of rights under Part 5 of the Wills and Succession Act on certain people. They include a spouse or adult interdependent partner who is not the sole beneficiary, an adult child unable to earn a living because of physical disability, a child aged 18 to 21 in full-time school and under parental charge, and the Public Trustee and guardian where a minor is affected. A grant must not issue until the Court is satisfied this was done.

Special cases: minors and missing persons

Where a minor, a person who was a minor at the date of death, or a missing person is interested in the estate, notice must go to the Public Trustee, and the application cannot proceed until the Public Trustee is represented or says it will not be. For a minor beneficiary, the Government of Alberta says the representative gives the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee a copy of the grant application and a GA4 Notice to Public Trustee form.

What to do next

After a grant is issued, the applicant must serve a notice of grant issuing in Form GA7 within 30 days on each person listed in Form GA1 who requires notification. No affidavit of service is required for that notice.

• Collect statements, certificates and a certified copy of the certificate of title for any land.
• Record values as of the date of death for each asset and debt.
• Make a list of every person who must be served and how you will serve them.
• Check whether a minor or missing person is involved, which brings in the Public Trustee.
• Diarize the 30-day deadlines for the affidavit of service and the notice of grant issuing.
• Keep copies of everything, because it forms the base of your later accounting.

Form numbers and requirements change from time to time, so check the current Government of Alberta forms and ask a lawyer if anything is unclear.

Frequently asked questions