What an Executor Actually Does: The Job Nobody Explains Until You Have It

An executor (Ontario's formal term: estate trustee) is the person legally responsible for wrapping up everything a person owned, owed, and promised. It is part project manager, part bookkeeper, part diplomat, and it lasts a year or more for a typical estate. People agree to it at a kitchen table decades earlier, flattered to be trusted, with no idea what they said yes to. This guide is what they said yes to.

If you are reading this with the death already happened: skip to the first-two-weeks list, breathe, and know that almost nothing in an estate is truly urgent except the funeral, the house, and any dependents or pets. The rest tolerates a slow, careful executor far better than a fast, sloppy one.

1. Funeral and burial arrangements, guided by any written wishes (check for a prepaid contract before paying for anything).
2. Find the will and confirm you are named. The lawyer who drafted it, the safe deposit box, and the filing cabinet are the usual suspects.
3. Order death certificates through the funeral home, and order more than you think you need. Banks, insurers, pensions, and land registries all want one; ten is a sane starting number, and reordering later is slow.
4. Secure the property: locks if the house sits empty, and call the home insurer immediately; vacant-home clauses can void coverage within weeks, and this is the most expensive thing new executors don't know.
5. Redirect mail, and start a notebook. Every call, every date, every expense, from day one. The estate reimburses reasonable executor expenses, and beneficiaries are entitled to an accounting; the notebook is both your defence and your sanity.
6. Notify the big systems: Service Canada (CPP/OAS stop, and the CPP death benefit and survivor benefits start here), the bank, employer or pension plans, and the CRA.

Probate is the court process that certifies the will and your authority. In Ontario it produces a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee, and the estate pays Estate Administration Tax (roughly 1.5 percent of estate value over $50,000; the first $50,000 is exempt). Whether you need it depends on what the estate holds: banks release small accounts without it, real estate held solely in the deceased's name almost always requires it, and each institution sets its own threshold. Ask each one "will you release this asset without probate?" before assuming.

Ontario has a simplified process for small estates (under $150,000) that is genuinely more navigable without a lawyer. For everything else, a wise division of labour: many executors hire an estates lawyer for the probate application and specific questions, and do the legwork themselves. Legal fees come from the estate, not your pocket, and a few focused hours of advice prevents the classic executor errors.

• Inventory everything: accounts, property, investments, insurance, debts, subscriptions, and the increasingly real category of digital assets (email, photos, crypto, loyalty points). The personal inventory in Section 2 of our free Handbook, if the person filled it in, turns this month of detective work into an afternoon.
• Pay debts and taxes before distributing anything. The estate files a final tax return (and often an estate return), and the CRA's clearance certificate is the executor's shield: distribute before clearance and the tax shortfall is personally yours. This is the single most important sentence in this guide.
• Communicate with beneficiaries on a schedule, even when there is nothing to report. Executors get sued by surprised beneficiaries far more often than by wronged ones. A quarterly email costs nothing.
• Sell or transfer the big assets (house, vehicles, investments), keeping records of valuations at death; they set the tax cost base.
• Distribute per the will, get releases signed, keep the file. Seven years is the standard advice for retaining estate records.

Three things people wish they had known earlier. First, executors are entitled to compensation in Ontario, by convention up to about 5 percent of the estate's value for a full administration; family members often waive it, but knowing it exists reframes the workload. Second, conflict is normal and manageable: the executor's duty is to the will, not to fairness as siblings define it, and the notebook plus scheduled updates defuse most of it; a lawyer's letter defuses the rest. Third, you can decline. Renouncing before starting is straightforward, and an alternate or a trust company steps in. An executor who knows they will not do the job well serves the family better by saying so at the start.

If you are being asked to be someone's executor now, the best answer is "yes, if we do the paperwork": the five legal documents and the personal inventory, done while they are well, are the difference between a manageable year and a miserable one.