You've just been named executor. Here's what actually happens next.

OneWhat you actually agreed to

In Ontario the person who administers an estate is called the estate trustee. Most people still say executor, and so will we. Either way, the role is the same, and it is bigger than most people expect when they say yes.

You are responsible for finding and protecting everything the person owned, paying what they owed, filing their final tax returns, and giving what is left to the people named in the will. You are legally accountable to the beneficiaries for how you do it. You can be compensated for your time, although the amount is not automatic and has to be approved by the beneficiaries or by the court, and you can hire professionals at the estate's expense. Ask the estate lawyer what is reasonable before you start spending.

Two things are worth knowing on day one.

The first is that you do not have to do this. If the will names you and you have not yet started dealing with the estate, you can renounce. That is a decision for a lawyer, not a website, but people are often surprised it exists. Once you have started acting as executor it becomes much harder to step back.

The second is that most of this is not urgent in the way it feels urgent. Grief makes everything feel like it has to happen this week. Almost none of it does. Two things in the first month genuinely are time sensitive, and both have their own section below: telling the home insurer the house is empty, and getting a date of death valuation of the property. Everything else can wait until you have slept.

The estate does not have to be settled quickly. It has to be settled properly.

TwoThe first two weeks

Here is the short version of what to do before you think about anything else.

Find the will

Check the safety deposit box, the filing cabinet, the lawyer who did the last real estate deal, and the bedroom closet. If you cannot find one, the estate is handled as an intestacy under Ontario's Succession Law Reform Act, which sets out who inherits and in what order. That is a different process and you want a lawyer early.

Order more death certificates than you think you need

Banks, insurers, pension administrators, the land registry and the vehicle office all want their own proof. Eight to ten copies is not excessive. The funeral home can usually order them with you.

Secure the house

Change the locks if keys are floating around, take the spare key out of the fake rock, and photograph every room before anything is moved. Not because you distrust your family. Because six months from now somebody will ask where the ring went, and a date stamped photo is a kinder answer than a memory.

Take the mail in or have it forwarded. A pile of flyers on the porch tells the whole street the house is empty.

Call the insurance company

This is the one that catches people. It has its own section, because it is an expensive mistake and an entirely avoidable one.

ThreeThe insurance problem nobody mentions

Insurers draw a line between a home that is unoccupied, meaning someone intends to return and the utilities and furnishings are still functioning, and one that is vacant, meaning nobody is coming back, the contents are gone or going, and it is heading for sale. An estate home usually starts as the first and quietly becomes the second, often without anyone telling the insurer.

What to do, in the first week:

• Phone the insurer, tell them the owner has died and the house is now empty, and ask what they need. Do this before you clear anything out.
• Ask specifically whether you need a vacancy permit or a separate vacant property policy. They are different products with different prices. Vacant coverage can cost noticeably more than a standard policy, and it commonly excludes exactly the things you are worried about, including water damage, vandalism and glass breakage.
• Get the answer in writing. An email from the broker is fine.
• Arrange for someone to physically check the house on a schedule the insurer will accept. Some require documented visits every three to seven days.

The practical risk in Ontario is water. A burst pipe in an empty house in February turns into a gut job rather than a repair, and an insurer that was never told the house was vacant is entitled to say no. Either keep the heat on and the water on with someone checking, or have the water shut off and the lines drained by a plumber. Do not do half of one and half of the other.

FourProbate, in plain English

Probate is the court confirming that the will is valid and that you are the person with authority to act. In Ontario the document you get is called a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. Banks and the land registry generally will not deal with you without it.

Applying triggers Ontario's Estate Administration Tax, which most people still call probate fees.

Two things are commonly misunderstood about that number. Real estate in Ontario counts at its value less any mortgage registered against it. And assets that pass outside the estate, such as jointly held property with a right of survivorship, or an RRSP or life insurance policy with a named beneficiary, are generally not included in the calculation at all.

Joint ownership between a parent and an adult child is the one to be careful with. It does not always do what families expect it to do, and it is a question for the estate lawyer rather than something to arrange around the kitchen table.

Two ways it can be smaller or simpler

The Small Estate Certificate

Ontario has a simplified probate route for estates valued at $150,000 or less. Less paperwork, and it is designed to be usable without a lawyer. It does not work if the will is being contested, if there is litigation, or if the assets are worth more than the threshold. The threshold is set by regulation, which means it can change without a change in the law, so confirm the current figure before you rely on it.

It simplifies the process, it does not reduce the tax. Estate Administration Tax is still payable on anything above $50,000, and the Estate Information Return is still due.

The first dealings exemption

This one is genuinely worth asking about, and a surprising number of families never hear of it.

If the person bought the house before Ontario converted the land registry system to Land Titles, and the title has not been transferred since that conversion, it may be possible to transfer the property to the beneficiaries or sell it without probating the will at all. On a house in York Region that is often five figures of tax that simply does not have to be paid.

One thing to be careful about. The conversion started in the mid 1990s and rolled out county by county over roughly the following fifteen years, so what matters is the date this particular property converted, not a single province wide date. Plenty of homes bought in the late 1990s and early 2000s still qualify. Ask regardless of when it was purchased.

It is narrow. The title has to be flagged Land Titles Conversion Qualified, there must be a valid will, the property must not have been dealt with since conversion, and the will must not already have been probated for another reason. A mortgage registered and discharged does not usually disqualify it. A transfer of ownership does.

How long it takes

Preparing the application takes a few weeks if the paperwork is tidy. The court's own processing time varies a great deal by location and by season. Plan on a few months from death to certificate and be pleasantly surprised if it is faster. This is the single biggest reason estate sales take longer than families expect, and it is worth telling the beneficiaries early so nobody thinks you are dragging your feet.

FiveWhat the house is worth, and why the date matters

When someone dies, the Canada Revenue Agency treats them as having sold everything they owned at fair market value on the date of death. That is called a deemed disposition, and it is reported on their final tax return.

For the family home, the principal residence exemption usually means no tax is owing on that gain. So far, so painless. The part that catches estates is what happens afterward.

From the date of death, the estate holds the property at that date of death value. If the house eventually sells for more than that, the increase can be a taxable capital gain in the estate's hands, and the principal residence exemption does not automatically follow the property into the estate.

In practice this rarely produces a large bill. Most estates sell within a year, prices do not move that far in that time, and once the selling costs come off there is often a small loss rather than a gain. But it produces a question, and the question needs an answer on paper.

Kathleen prepares date of death valuations for estates in York Region and Durham, with the comparable sales documented so the accountant can use them. There is no obligation to list the home with us afterward, and we will say so in writing if that helps you keep the peace with a sibling who has a friend in the business.

SixA house full of a lifetime

This is the part that takes the longest and hurts the most, and it is the part people most often do in the wrong order.

The wrong order is to start with the sentimental things, because it is emotionally impossible and you stall out in a bedroom with a shoebox of photographs. The right order is to start with the boring, high volume, low emotion categories and work inward.

1. Documents first. Before anything leaves the house, go through desks, filing cabinets, and the backs of drawers for bank statements, insurance policies, share certificates, pension paperwork, deeds and tax records. Cash and bonds turn up in envelopes and cookie tins more often than you would think.
2. Then the obvious garbage. Expired food, broken things, the twelve year old paint in the basement. This alone often clears a third of the volume and it makes the house feel possible.
3. Then furniture and appliances. Decide what is being sold, donated or hauled. Be realistic: the market for brown wood furniture and china cabinets is very soft, and most estate contents are worth less than families hope.
4. Then the sentimental things, last, with time set aside.

Before anyone takes anything

Agree on a process with the beneficiaries in writing before the first item leaves the house. Photographs, a list, and a method. Some families take turns choosing. Some draw numbers. Some assign a value to significant items and adjust the cash split. The method matters less than the fact that everyone agreed to it in advance.

A surprising number of estate disputes that are not about money start with the contents of the house.

Getting help

You do not have to do the clear out yourself, and the cost is normally treated as an expense of the estate. Confirm that with the estate lawyer before you commit to anything large. Options in the GTA, roughly in order of cost:

• An online contents auction. Works well when there is genuine volume and some collectible interest. The auction company photographs and lists everything, buyers collect, and the house can empty in days rather than weeks.
• A professional organizer. Best when the family wants to be involved in the sorting but needs someone to keep it moving and make decisions when nobody else can.
• A junk removal company. Fastest and bluntest. Fine for the final pass, wasteful as a first move.

SevenSelling an estate home

An estate sale is a normal sale with three differences.

You usually cannot close before probate

If title was in the deceased's name alone, the land registry needs the certificate before ownership can transfer, unless the first dealings exemption applies. You can list, and you can accept an offer, but the closing date has to be set with the certificate in mind. Listing before you have a realistic timeline is how estates end up asking for extensions and losing buyers.

If the property was held jointly with a right of survivorship, usually with a surviving spouse, it typically passes by survivorship and probate is not needed to sell.

You are selling a house you never lived in

Ontario has no mandatory seller disclosure form, and executors normally sell without one, since you genuinely do not know whether the basement leaked in 1998. That is fine and it is standard. The safer approach, and the one your lawyer will confirm, is that anything you actually know about which a buyer could not see for themselves should be raised with your lawyer and your agent before you list. Tell them everything you know and let them advise on what has to be said.

Expect the buyer's home inspection to find things. A house owned by the same person for forty years usually has original systems and deferred maintenance. That is priced in, and it is a reason to price honestly at the start rather than to renovate.

Do not renovate an estate home

This is the advice families most often argue with and most often thank us for later. In a probate sale you are spending the beneficiaries' money on a house none of you will live in, with no ability to supervise the work properly, and no guarantee the market pays it back.

What is worth doing: a full clear out, a deep clean, fresh paint if the walls are genuinely marked, landscaping tidied, and every light bulb working. What is almost never worth doing: kitchens, bathrooms, flooring or windows.

EightThe part where you can be held personally responsible

There are three filings, and the last one protects you.

The final personal tax return

Also called the terminal T1. For a death between 1 January and 31 October, it is due by 30 April of the following year. For a death in November or December, it is due six months after the date of death. If the person or their spouse was self employed, the filing deadline moves to 15 June, although any tax owing is still due earlier. Any earlier years that were never filed are still due too.

The Estate Information Return

This goes to the Ontario Ministry of Finance within 180 calendar days of the estate certificate being issued. It is a detailed inventory of what the estate held and what each item was worth. Filing on time limits how long Ontario has to assess the estate. Filing late removes that protection, and there are penalties.

The clearance certificate

This is the one that matters to you personally. A clearance certificate is the CRA confirming that all tax owed by the deceased and by the estate has been paid.

There is a middle ground that estate lawyers sometimes use, involving an interim distribution with a holdback before the clearance certificate arrives. Whether it suits your estate, and what the holdback should be, is a question for the estate lawyer. We raise it only so you know to ask.

NineYour brothers and sisters

The legal work is the easy part. Nobody hires a lawyer because probate was confusing. They hire one because a sibling stopped answering the phone.

Four things prevent most of it.

• Communicate on a schedule, not on demand. A short written update to everyone on the same day each month. Same message, same time, no side conversations. Silence is where people invent stories.
• Keep every receipt and put it in one place. You will be asked to account for the estate's money, and you are entitled to be reimbursed for what you spent. A shoebox of receipts and a simple spreadsheet is enough. Reconstructing it two years later is not.
• Separate the roles from the feelings. A sibling who thinks the price is too low is not necessarily being difficult. They are usually grieving in the only language available to them, which is a number.
• Use professionals as the neutral party. "The valuation says this" lands very differently from "I think this." That is half of what you are paying an appraiser and a lawyer for.

And if the will divides the house among people who cannot agree, get a lawyer involved early rather than late. Dealt with early it is usually a phone call, and left alone it becomes an application to the court.

TenWhat a realistic year looks like

Every estate is different. This is the shape of a typical Ontario estate with one house, a will, and beneficiaries who get along.

• Week 1 to 2 Protect what exists

  Find the will. Order death certificates. Secure and photograph the house. Call the insurer about vacancy. Redirect the mail. Do not throw anything out yet.

• Week 2 to 6 Build the picture

  Meet the estate lawyer and ask about the first dealings exemption. Get the date of death valuation. Notify banks, pensions, Service Canada and insurers. Start the asset inventory. Open an estate bank account once you have authority.

• Month 2 to 5 Probate and the clear out

  The probate application goes in and you wait. Meanwhile the house gets emptied, in the order above, with the beneficiaries' distribution method agreed in writing first.

• Month 4 to 8 Sell the house

  Certificate in hand, or exemption confirmed. Clean, paint, tidy the yard, list, sell, close. Do not renovate.

• Month 6 to 12 File and account

  Estate Information Return within 180 days of the certificate. Terminal return, and the estate's T3 return. Pay the debts. Prepare the accounting for the beneficiaries.

• Month 9 to 18 Clear and distribute

  Request the clearance certificate. Interim distribution with a holdback if it makes sense. Final distribution when the certificate arrives. Then you are done.

If it takes longer than this, you are not failing. Estates with foreign assets, business interests, a missing beneficiary, a contested will or no will at all routinely run two years or more.

ElevenYour first month, as a checklist

• Locate the original will and read it properlyIncluding any codicils. Note who the beneficiaries are and whether anyone is a minor or lives outside Canada.
• Order eight to ten death certificatesThrough the funeral home or ServiceOntario.
• Call the home insurer and disclose that the house is emptyAsk about a vacancy permit or vacant property policy. Get the answer in writing.
• Secure the house and photograph every roomBefore anything is moved or removed.
• Redirect the mail, and keep the heat onDecide with the insurer whether the water stays on with someone checking, or gets shut off and the lines drained.
• Book an appointment with an estate lawyerAsk specifically about the first dealings exemption and the small estate certificate.
• Get a written date of death valuation of the propertyWith comparable sales attached, for the accountant and for the beneficiaries.
• Notify Service Canada, banks, pension plans and insurersCPP and OAS are payable up to and including the month of death. Payments for any month after that have to be repaid.
• Open a dedicated estate bank accountNever run estate money through your own account. Ever.
• Start one file for receipts and one spreadsheet for the inventoryYou will be asked to account for all of it.
• Agree in writing how personal belongings will be dividedBefore the first item leaves the house.
• Send the beneficiaries a short written update and a monthly dateThen keep to it.