Probate Fee Avoidance: The Potential Benefits And Challenges Of Using Multiple Wills

You may be familiar with the term "probate". Probate is the process through which the BC Supreme Court issues a grant of probate, which is legal confirmation of the validity of a Will and the Executor's authority under it.

Under the probate process, the Executor of a Will must disclose all the assets and liabilities of the deceased person's estate to the court and provide the Will to the court; once satisfied of the Will's validity and the disclosure related to the estate, the court will acknowledge the appointment of the Executor under the Will. The probate process can be time-consuming, makes the Will publicly available (anyone can search the court's registry), and necessitates the payment of a fee equal to approximately 1.4% of the value of the estate (the exact formula is 0.6% the estate value greater than $25,000 but less than $50,000, and 1.4% on the rest). For example, if the estate was valued at $1,000,000, then probate fees of approximately $14,000 must be