Probate fees by province — and the honest ways to reduce them

The fee schedules first, then the strategies — with the trade-offs the strategies’ fans tend to skip.

The schedules

Ontario — Estate Administration Tax. Nothing on the first $50,000; $15 per $1,000 (1.5%) on everything above, uncapped. $500,000 estate → $6,750. $2,000,000 → $29,250. Deaths before January 1, 2020 used a different schedule.

British Columbia — probate fees. Nothing to $25,000; 0.6% from $25,000 to $50,000; 1.4% above $50,000, uncapped; plus a $200 filing fee for estates over $25,000. $500,000 estate → $6,650 + $200.

Alberta — surrogate fees. Flat bands: $35 to $10,000 · $135 to $25,000 · $275 to $125,000 · $400 to $250,000 · $525 above $250,000, capped. Alberta probate cost is a rounding error; if you live there, plan for guardianship and family claims, not fees.

Use the Ontario calculator for any value.

The reduction strategies, honestly

Probate is charged on what passes through the estate. Everything below works by routing value around it.

Beneficiary designations on RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, pensions and life insurance. The cleanest tool: no ownership change during life, revocable, free. The trap is tax-burden mismatch — the designated beneficiary takes the gross while the estate (someone else’s share) pays the income tax. The full interaction.

Joint ownership with right of survivorship. Powerful for spouses; dangerous as a tax dodge with adult children. Adding a child to the house title is a real disposition (possible capital gains today), exposes the home to the child’s creditors and divorce, needs the child’s signature to sell — and since Pecore v Pecore (SCC 2007), a gratuitous transfer to an adult child is presumed to be held in trust for the estate anyway, unless gift intent is proven. The probate saved is routinely dwarfed by the problems bought.

Multiple wills. A primary will for assets needing probate, a secondary will for assets that do not — classically private-company shares. Ontario’s standard tool for business owners; useful in BC and Alberta too. Needs a lawyer to draft the pair without one revoking the other.

Gifts during life. Nothing you no longer own is probated. Also nothing you no longer own is yours — and gifted appreciating assets trigger capital gains now.

What does not work: hiding assets (the executor certifies the inventory under oath), “just not probating” when a land registry or bank demands it, and moving the estate to Alberta by wishful thinking — the fee follows where assets and residence actually are.