BC probate fees are roughly 1.4% of the gross estate above $50,000. On a $1M estate, that is about $13,300. Here is how the math works, what counts toward the fee base, and the legitimate tools to plan around it.
Probate fees are one of the most-discussed and most-misunderstood elements of BC estate planning. Many BC residents over-estimate the fee and over-engineer plans to avoid it. A smaller number under-estimate the fee and are surprised when the executor’s final accounting reveals what got paid to the Province before the distribution.
This post walks through the actual numbers — what the fees are, what assets count toward them, when probate is required, and the legitimate planning tools that reduce the fee base without creating other problems.
For the related question of whether to put an adult child on title to avoid probate (often a bad idea), see our companion post.
BC probate fees are set out in the Probate Fee Act. The schedule is straightforward:
Plus a $200 administrative filing fee for any estate over $25,000.
The fee is paid by the executor out of estate assets at the time the Grant of Probate is issued by the Probate Registry of the BC Supreme Court.
A few worked examples:
| Gross estate | Probate fee |
|---|---|
| $50,000 | $350 (or $150 if under $25K) |
| $100,000 | $850 |
| $250,000 | $2,950 |
| $500,000 | $6,450 |
| $1,000,000 | $13,450 |
| $2,000,000 | $27,450 |
| $5,000,000 | $69,450 |
These are gross-estate numbers — the fee is calculated on the fair market value of the assets passing through the estate, before deduction of debts, mortgages, taxes, or administration costs.
Probate fees are charged on the gross value of assets that pass through the estate. Specifically:
Real property in BC owned by the deceased in sole name or as a tenant in common with others. Real property held in joint tenancy with a surviving joint tenant passes outside the estate via survivorship and does not count toward the probate base.
Bank accounts, investment accounts, and similar financial assets held in the deceased’s sole name. Joint accounts with right of survivorship pass to the surviving account holder outside the estate (subject to Pecore-presumption analysis for accounts between parents and adult children).
Vehicles, jewellery, personal effects owned by the deceased.
Receivables, partnership interests, business assets owned in sole name.
What does not count toward the probate base:
The composition of the estate matters more than the headline number. A $2 million BC homeowner with the home in joint tenancy with a spouse, RRSP with the spouse as beneficiary, and $50,000 in a sole-name chequing account pays probate on $50,000 (about $550 — minimal). The same person with the home in sole name, no beneficiary designations, and the $2 million all going through the estate pays roughly $27,450.
From the date of death to the issuance of the Grant of Probate, allow 3 to 6 months for a straightforward BC estate — longer for complex or contested ones. The Probate Registry of the BC Supreme Court currently takes about 4 to 8 weeks to review a simple application once it is filed; the rest of the time goes to gathering asset values, debts, and the supporting documents the application requires.
The fee gets most of the attention. The process and its timeline matter just as much.
An executor applying for probate prepares an application that includes the will, a list of assets and their values, a list of debts, and several supporting documents (death certificate, identification, evidence of the executor’s authority). The application is filed at the Probate Registry of the BC Supreme Court. The Registry reviews the application — currently 4 to 8 weeks for simple applications — and issues a Grant of Probate. The Grant is what banks, the Land Title Office, and other custodians of estate assets require before releasing assets to the executor.
From the date of death to the issuance of the Grant of Probate, allow 3 to 6 months for a straightforward estate, longer for complex ones. The executor cannot finalise the estate before the Grant — assets cannot move to beneficiaries, debts cannot be cleared, and the final accounting cannot be issued.
This timeline matters in a way the fee alone does not. A surviving spouse who needs immediate access to funds usually cannot wait six months for probate. Joint-tenancy property, joint accounts, and beneficiary designations are what carry the family through the period between death and Grant. Estates that have organised these instruments well are easier to administer than those that have not.
Several tools can reduce the probate fee base. Each has different costs and trade-offs.
Beneficiary designations on registered accounts. Free, easy, and powerful. Every RRSP, TFSA, RRIF, locked-in retirement account, and life insurance policy can name a beneficiary directly with the financial institution. On death, the asset passes directly to the named beneficiary outside the estate. No probate. No probate fee. The designations can usually be updated by a one-page form at the bank or insurer.
This tool alone takes a meaningful slice of most BC estates out of the probate base. Worth confirming the designations are current on every account, especially after a marriage, divorce, or death in the family.
Joint tenancy on real estate. The classical tool for spouses — though joint tenants and tenants in common produce very different results on death, so the title form has to match the estate plan. Real estate held in joint tenancy with a surviving spouse passes by survivorship outside the estate. No probate fee on that property on the first death. The second death — when the surviving spouse later dies and the property passes to the next generation — does involve probate, so the saving is one generation, not permanent.
Joint tenancy with adult children is a different story — we wrote that one up separately and we usually advise against it.
Alter-ego or joint-spousal trusts. For BC residents over 65 (or married couples both over 65), an alter-ego trust or joint-spousal trust can hold real estate and other assets outside the estate. The trust owns the property; the property passes to named beneficiaries on death without probate. The cost is real — $5,000 to $10,000 to set up, plus ongoing annual administration — and the trust comes with its own tax and administrative rules. For high-value estates ($3 million+ with significant probate-exposed assets), the math often works.
Multiple-will strategy. BC permits separate wills for different categories of assets. A primary will deals with the assets that require probate; a secondary will deals with assets that do not (private company shares, personal effects). Only the primary will is probated. The probate fee is calculated on the primary will’s assets only. For estates with meaningful private-business interests, this strategy can save substantial probate fees with no tax or creditor downside. Setup is roughly $1,000-$2,500 more than a single will.
Trust ownership of private company shares. A family trust holding private-company shares moves those shares outside the estate at death. The shares pass under the trust’s terms, not under the will. This is part of the broader corporate-structure planning we wrote about in our family share structures post.
Two patterns we routinely talk people out of:
Putting an adult child on title to a parent’s home in joint tenancy. The probate saving is usually outweighed by the tax cost, the creditor exposure, the litigation risk, and the Pecore presumption. Covered in detail in our companion post.
Closing all the parent’s bank accounts and transferring funds to a child “before they die” to avoid having those accounts in the estate. Same set of problems — gift-versus-loan disputes after death, exposure to the child’s creditors, possible tax consequences. Almost always worse than the probate fee saved.
For most BC estates, the probate planning decision is straightforward:
For estates above $2 million, with private-business interests, or with complex family situations (blended families, beneficiaries with disabilities, non-resident family members), the layered planning options become worth the investment. The multiple-will strategy, the family trust, the alter-ego trust each have their place in those plans.
Our probate practice acts on both probate applications (helping the executor through the application, the asset valuations, the filing, the post-probate administration) and pre-death probate planning (will drafting, structure review, designation updates). Probate planning ideally happens decades before it is needed; the most expensive probate situations are the ones where no planning was done.
If you are an executor administering a BC estate and need help with the probate application, contact us with the basics — the deceased’s name, the rough size of the estate, the type of assets involved, and the will if one exists. For probate-fee estimates on a specific estate before death, our probate fee calculator handles the BC schedule. For broader estate planning conversations, see our estate planning page.
Written by Lime Law Corporation. This article is general information about BC law as of May 25, 2026. It is not legal advice. If you have a specific matter, contact us — and please do not rely on a blog post in place of advice on your file.
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