Wills and Estates Lawyers: directory of firms

Ontario calls the grant a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee, and the province explains that it either gives someone authority to manage an estate or confirms the authority of a person named in the will. It is applied for at the Superior Court of Justice in the county or district where the deceased lived, or where they held Ontario property if they lived elsewhere. Probate is not always needed; it is typically required where there is no will, where real property does not pass by survivorship, where a financial institution wants proof of authority, where property has to be sold, or where there is a dispute about the will or about who should act.

The application involves court forms, identifying the estate's assets and their values, serving copies on the beneficiaries before filing, and posting a bond where one is required. Ontario charges an estate administration tax, paid as a deposit when the certificate is applied for and becoming the tax once the certificate issues; if no certificate is issued, the deposit is refunded. An Estate Information Return then goes to the Ministry of Finance within a hundred and eighty calendar days after the certificate is issued, even where the calculated value is nil, with limited exceptions such as a certificate for a succeeding estate trustee or a trustee during litigation.

Quebec avoids the step for one form of will. The province states that a notarial will takes effect as soon as you die and does not need to be probated, which it notes saves the heirs time and effort. A will that is not notarial has to be verified before it can be acted on, which is part of why the notarial form is so common there.

British Columbia consolidated its succession law into the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, whose parts cover fundamental rules, dying without a will, wills themselves, benefit plans and the administration of estates. A person of sixteen or older who is mentally capable may make a will; the court may declare a document effective even where the formal requirements were not met, if it represents the will-maker's intentions; and on an intestacy the estate passes to a spouse, then descendants, then relatives by degree of kinship. The court can also vary a will that does not make adequate provision for the proper maintenance and support of a spouse or children.

Ontario keeps its process in the Superior Court of Justice, with the certificate, the estate administration tax and the Estate Information Return described above. The province also points people who are dealing with an estate to check the estates division of the local court for a will, and notes that where there is no will the estate is distributed according to law, which it acknowledges can be complex.

Quebec treats the notary as central to both planning and administration. A notarial will is drawn up by a notary in the presence of a witness, with a second witness in particular circumstances such as where the testator is blind; the notary verifies identity, capacity and consent, keeps the original so it cannot be lost, and registers it. The Chambre des notaires has kept its Register of Testamentary Dispositions since 1961: notaries declare that they have received a will or protection mandate without sending in the document, so only its existence is recorded, and a will search after a death can be made through the portal covering both the notaries' and the bar's registers.

Planning work is commonly quoted as a fixed fee for a defined package, such as a will with both powers of attorney, or a pair of mirror wills for a couple. Anything with a trust, a business interest, a blended family or property in another jurisdiction is more likely to be hourly because the drafting is bespoke.

Estate administration is usually hourly, with court filing charges, the estate administration tax and any valuations billed as disbursements on top. Ask at the outset what the firm expects the estate trustee to do personally and what it will do for them, because the division of labour changes the total more than the hourly rate does. Compensation for the estate trustee themselves is a separate question from the lawyer's account, and worth raising early.

Wills and estates firms are listed on LokalMatch as a directory, sorted by city and by the areas each firm says it practises in. There is no intake form behind it and we don't sell requests for this service, so a listing reflects no judgement by LokalMatch about who should draft your will or administer an estate, and firms are neither ranked nor recommended.

Verify the licence yourself on the public register kept by the law society or, in Quebec, the professional order for the profession involved, and ask the firm whether it handles the particular situation you are in. This page is general information, not legal or financial advice: succession rules differ by province, and a plan that is sound in one may not carry across a provincial border.