Executors
Choosing the person who will settle your estate, what the job involves in practice, and the limits on what they can do.
Can an executor also be a beneficiary?
Naming your spouse or child as both executor and beneficiary is legal and extremely common. The two genuine cautions: witnessing, and conflicts in unequal estates.
Choosing an executor: the decision that matters most
Your executor settles everything you leave behind. What the job actually involves, who makes a good one, out-of-province traps, and why the backup matters as much as the first choice.
Executor compensation: what the job pays
Executors are entitled to be paid from the estate. The percentages courts actually allow in Ontario, BC and Alberta, how tax treats the fee, and when family executors should take it.
What executors actually do: the full job, in order
From the phone call to the final distribution — the executor's job as a chronological checklist, with the personal-liability traps marked.
Start your will. Pay when you approve it.
Answer the questions, read your finished will, then decide. $15 until October 31, 2026 — $29 after that.