Estimated probate fee by province.
Estimated probate fee
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Effective rate on estate
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Your breakdown
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Probate is a provincial fee, not a federal tax
There is no national probate charge in Canada. Each province sets its own fee on the value of assets that pass through the estate, and the spread between provinces is enormous. Ontario, which renamed the charge the Estate Administration Tax in 1998, takes 1.5 percent of everything above $50,000 with nothing on the first $50,000. Alberta caps its fee at $525 no matter how large the estate. British Columbia runs a tiered scale, and Quebec charges essentially nothing when the will is notarial. This calculator applies the rule for the province you pick, so the same $600,000 estate can cost $8,250 in Ontario, roughly $8,058 in BC, or $525 in Alberta.
What actually counts toward the estate
The fee is charged on assets that need the probate certificate to be released, not on your entire net worth. A registered account with a named beneficiary, such as an RRSP, RRIF, or TFSA, passes outside the estate. So does property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, and life insurance paid to a named beneficiary rather than the estate. What typically gets captured is the home held in your sole name, non registered investments, bank accounts without a joint holder, and any asset where the institution insists on seeing the grant before it will transfer title. Enter only that probatable slice in the field above, not the gross figure on a net worth statement.
A $600,000 Ontario estate, line by line
Ontario is the province where probate genuinely bites, so it makes the clearest example. Suppose a sole owner dies leaving a house and a non registered portfolio worth $600,000 combined, with an RRIF and TFSA that name beneficiaries and therefore sit outside probate. The Estate Administration Tax is nil on the first $50,000 and 1.5 percent on the remaining $550,000.
The effective rate sits below 1.5 percent because of the exempt first $50,000. The bigger the estate, the closer the effective rate creeps toward the headline 1.5 percent.
Nova Scotia actually edges past Ontario at this size because its scale adds about $17.08 per $1,000 above $100,000 on top of a base charge. Alberta barely registers on the chart. That gap is why province of residence, and where your real estate sits, matters so much for estate planning.
Who should run these numbers
This tool is for executors estimating the cost of obtaining a grant, and for anyone doing back of the envelope estate planning who wants to see whether probate is worth working around. A common and costly mistake is adding an adult child as a joint owner on the family home purely to dodge probate. That move can trigger an immediate deemed disposition for capital gains, expose the home to the child’s creditors or divorce, and spark family disputes about whether the child holds a real interest or only bare legal title. My practical take: in Ontario or BC a probate saving of a few thousand dollars rarely justifies that risk on its own. Beneficiary designations on registered plans and insurance are the clean, low risk lever. Talk to an estate lawyer before retitling real estate, and remember these are estimates that exclude legal and accounting fees, which usually dwarf the probate charge itself.
Does the surviving spouse pay probate on jointly held assets?
Generally no. Assets held in true joint tenancy with right of survivorship pass directly to the surviving joint owner and never enter the estate, so no probate fee applies on that transfer. The caveat is that the joint tenancy has to be genuine. If a court later finds the arrangement was set up only for convenience, the asset can be pulled back into the estate and become probatable after all.
Can I avoid Ontario probate with multiple wills?
Yes, and it is a well established Ontario strategy. A primary will covers assets that need a court grant, while a secondary will governs private company shares and certain personal assets that can transfer without one. Only the primary will is submitted for probate, so the Estate Administration Tax is charged on a smaller base. This works best for business owners with valuable private shares and should be drafted by a lawyer to keep the two wills from accidentally revoking each other.