Who Pays for Passing of Accounts in Ontario?

When an estate trustee applies to formally pass their accounts before the Superior Court of Justice, someone has to pay the legal bill for that process. Figuring out who pays for passing of accounts in Ontario is not a single fixed rule — it depends heavily on whether the accounts are approved without objection or whether a beneficiary challenges them and loses.

Understanding the general cost principles before you get to court can help an estate trustee budget properly, and help a beneficiary weigh whether raising an objection is worth the risk.

What a Passing of Accounts Actually Involves

A passing of accounts is a court application, brought under the Rules of Civil Procedure, in which an estate trustee files a detailed statement of everything the estate received and spent during the administration, along with the compensation they are asking the court to approve. A judge either approves the accounts as filed, approves them with adjustments, or — where a beneficiary has objected — holds a hearing to resolve the dispute.

Not every estate needs to go through this. Many estate trustees instead give beneficiaries informal accounts and ask them to sign off privately. A formal court passing tends to become necessary when a beneficiary is a minor or otherwise cannot legally consent, when the will requires it, or when the trustee and beneficiaries cannot agree.

The General Rule: The Estate Usually Pays

In most passing-of-accounts applications where nothing is seriously contested, the legal and court costs of preparing and passing the accounts are treated as a legitimate expense of administering the estate. That means they generally come out of the estate itself — reducing what is ultimately left for beneficiaries — rather than out of the estate trustee’s own pocket. This reflects the broader principle that an estate trustee is entitled to be indemnified from the estate for costs reasonably incurred while carrying out their duties, including the duty to account.

When a Losing Objector Can Be Ordered to Pay Personally

The calculation changes once a beneficiary files a formal objection and the matter proceeds to a contested hearing. As in other civil proceedings, Ontario courts have discretion to order costs against the unsuccessful party rather than leaving the estate to absorb everyone’s legal fees. In practice, this tends to play out a few ways:

• An objection the court finds was reasonable, raised in good faith, and helped clarify a genuine issue may still be paid from the estate even if it does not fully succeed.
• An objection the court finds was unreasonable, speculative, or pursued for an improper purpose can result in the objecting beneficiary being personally ordered to pay some or all of the costs involved — potentially including a portion of the estate trustee’s costs.
• Where the court instead finds the estate trustee acted improperly — for example, by claiming compensation they were not entitled to — the trustee can be ordered to personally bear their own costs, rather than having the estate cushion the consequence of their conduct.

Comparing the Likely Outcomes

These reflect general tendencies, not guarantees. Costs decisions in estate litigation are always at the presiding judge’s discretion and depend heavily on the specific facts of the case.

Why This Matters Before You File an Objection

Because an unsuccessful, unreasonable objection can leave a beneficiary personally out of pocket, it is worth getting a clear-eyed opinion on the strength of a concern before formally objecting — rather than assuming the estate will always absorb the cost of raising it. Equally, an estate trustee should keep careful, organized records throughout the administration, since incomplete accounting is one of the more common reasons a routine passing turns into a contested, costly one.

Frequently asked questions