Contact
Estate Trustee Services
If you have been appointed as an Estate Trustee you have a lot of responsibilities. Luckily, in Ontario, the law recognizes that you should not have to do this “job” alone. Legal fees are specifically recognized as reasonable estate expenses that should be incurred.
This means, one of your first steps should be to retain an Estate’s Lawyer.
Two Stages of Estate Administration
To help you understand the process better, we typically consider your Estate to be completed in two stages. The first stage is often referred to as the Application for probate and a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. The second stage is often called the final Estate Distribution stage. Both stages are important, and require legal advice, however, we like to give you the option as to which stage you would like to retain our services for. We have listed the two stages and the services our firm provides below:
Probate
- Review will
- Advice on executor duties and liabilities
- Assist on valuing estate
- Advice regarding joint assets
- Advice regarding estate administration tax
- Preparing and filing Ontario probate forms (Application for Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee)
- Drafting renunciations and beneficiary consents (If required)
- Drafting letters to beneficiaries.
- Drafting notarial copies of Will and Death Certificate (if required)
Estate Distribution
- Preparation of Estate information return
- Advice on distributing assets
- Advice on drafting Statement of Accounts
- Advice on executor’s compensation
- Assistance with giving Notice to Creditors
- Assistance with distribution of interim distributions of estate assets
- Assisting in drafting and obtaining final releases from beneficiaries or bringing an Application for a passing of accounts
Stage 1: Application for Probate
This step is where you apply to the courts to be appointed as Estate Trustee for the Estate. In order to apply you will need to provide the courts with a great deal of information. This step can often become overwhelming and our firm has extensive experience to help make this step run as smoothly as possible.
In this stage one of your main responsibilities is to preserve, calculate and organize the assets of the deceased. This means, you will need to identify and calculate all of the Assets and debts of the deceased. Our firm can help you collect this information as we have spent several years assisting clients in obtaining bank statements, investment statements, vehicle appraisals, real estate appraisals etc.
YOUR ROLE AS A CLIENT
Your role as a client is to be honest and provide prompt communication.
We will also require that you deliver various documents such as: Will and any Codicils; the deceased’s birth, marriage, and death certificates; any separation agreements and court orders or judgments; any divorce orders; all financial papers; and insurance policies.
By financial papers we mean any: bank account statements, tax returns, appraisals (if required), investment statements etc.
ESTATE ADMINISTRATION TAX
The Estate Administration tax is a tax that is payable when applying for probate. The tax is roughly $15.00 for ever $1,000.00 of the value of the estate, in excess of $50,000.00. These fees must be paid when an application for probate is made. As these fees will often be large fees, we require that you pay these fees before we file for probate.
You will be required to pay the Estate Administration Tax fee to our firm before we file for Probate. Please bring the funds promptly as a delay in bringing the funds to our firm will result in a delay in the estate being administered.
Stage 2: Estate Distribution
This step is often seen as the harder step in your Estate. Once you have been appointed as Estate Trustee, you are now tasked with paying estate creditors, withdrawing investments and taking steps to preserve and protect the Estate’s Assets. This would be where you may sell vehicles or real estate and when you are required to provide the final Statement of Accounts for the Estate.
As an Estate Trustee you have an obligation to disclose every asset, debt, expense and income that has come into or out of the Estate. This can be a very difficult task, but our firm has created a strategy to make this step as easy as possible.
We would be happy to help you through this stage and make the final step in this Estate run as smoothly as possible.
Want Us to Give You a Quote?
You have a right to pick the lawyer that best fits your needs. If you want us to give you a free quote, please feel free to call us at (705) 476-6600 or email us at info@sangsterlaw.ca.
