Estate Planning

FAQs on Wills, Death & Taxes

By Hull & Hull LLP

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General Website posts answers to frequently asked questions about estates matters like how to find a copy of a deceased person's will and how to calculate the amount of estate administration tax. 

There is a public database on site at the Toronto Estates Office at 330 University Avenue that contains information on wills deposited with the court for safekeeping or provided through an application for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will. 

Wills deposited with all Ontario Courts from 1996 forward can be searched through the Toronto office. Wills deposited in Toronto can be searched back 40 years. You must contact the individual court offices in other jurisdictions for wills pre-dating 1996.

You can search the name of the deceased and the date of death in order to obtain the file number and review the original will. Searching is free. If the file is located there is a $10.00 fee to retrieve it, $61 if it is in storage, and $1.00 per page for photocopies of the will.

As for estate administration tax, the formula for calculation is set out in s. 2(6) of the Estate Administration Tax Act, as follows:

...         $5 for each $1,000, or part thereof, of the first $50,000 of the value of the estate, and

...         $15 for each $1,000, or part thereof, of the value of the estate exceeding $50,000.

Or, perhaps you might want to consider a Joint Last to Die Insurance Policy, insurance designed for couples with the specific purpose of providing sufficient funds to pay taxes that will be owed by the estate; the policy pays out the total death benefit upon the death of the surviving spouse. Click here for Sun Life Financial's version.

Death & taxes: You might not be able to avoid the former but, with a little planning, you can insure against the latter.

Thanks for reading.

Sharon Davis

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).