What executors actually do: the full job, in order

If you have been named an executor — or are deciding who to name — this is the actual job, in roughly the order it happens. Budget a year for a straightforward estate; eighteen months to two years is normal.

First two weeks

• Locate the original will. Check for a more recent one.
• Arrange the funeral. (The executor, not the family, has legal authority over the body — though almost everyone follows the family’s and the will’s wishes.)
• Order death certificates from the funeral director. Get at least six; every institution wants one.
• Secure everything: lock the house, store the car, redirect mail, freeze cards, cancel subscriptions. Keep insurance on the home in force and notify the insurer it is vacant — vacant-home clauses void coverage, and an uninsured fire is the executor’s problem.

First two months

• Make an inventory: every asset, every debt, values at date of death. (If the deceased kept an estate record, this step collapses from weeks of detective work into an afternoon.)
• Open an estate bank account. All estate money flows through it — never through your own.
• Notify: banks, CRA, Service Canada (CPP/OAS stop, survivor and death benefits start), pension administrators, insurers, land registry, utilities.
• Determine whether probate is needed and apply. In Ontario this includes paying the Estate Administration Tax; in BC the probate fee; in Alberta the flat surrogate fee.

The long middle

• Collect assets: close accounts into the estate account, claim insurance, transfer or sell property and investments.
• Pay debts in the right order. Advertise for creditors (protects you from unknown claims).
• File the deceased’s final T1 return, due April 30 of the following year or six months after death, whichever is later — and a T3 return for income the estate earns while open.
• Keep meticulous accounts. Beneficiaries are entitled to see them; courts can review them.

The end

• Prepare a final accounting and have beneficiaries approve it (or pass accounts formally through the court).
• Distribute: specific gifts first, then residue percentages.
• Close the estate account. Keep the records for years — CRA reassessment windows are long.

What an executor cannot do

Rewrite the will. Favour themselves. Buy estate assets at a discount. Delay without reason (the convention is that beneficiaries can expect distribution to begin within a year — the “executor’s year”). Mix estate money with their own. An executor who does these things can be removed by the court and held personally liable.

If you are the one writing the will: this list is what you are assigning. Choose the person accordingly, and leave them an estate record rather than a filing cabinet mystery.