What is the difference between a grant of probate and a grant of administration?

A grant of probate is issued when there is a valid will — it confirms the will and the executor named in it. A grant of administration is issued when there is no will, or no named executor able to act; the BC Supreme Court appoints an administrator under the priority rules in the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA). The administration that follows is substantially the same either way.

What assets go through probate in BC?

Assets the deceased owned in their sole name — real estate, bank and investment accounts, vehicles, personal property — and their share of anything held as tenants in common. Property held in joint tenancy passes to the surviving owner outside probate, and registered accounts (RRSP, RRIF, TFSA) and life insurance with a named beneficiary pass directly to that beneficiary outside the estate.

Do you need probate if there is a will?

Often, yes. A will names the executor and sets out who inherits, but it does not by itself prove the executor's authority to a bank or the Land Title Office — the Grant of Probate does that. Having a will does not avoid probate; it determines how the estate is distributed once probate is granted. Probate is avoided only where the assets themselves pass outside the estate.

How much does probate cost in BC?

BC charges a probate fee on the gross value of the estate that passes through probate — nothing on the first $25,000, a $200 base fee, 0.6% on the $25,000–$50,000 band, and 1.4% above $50,000. On a $1,000,000 estate that is about $13,650. Legal fees for the application are separate. Our probate fee calculator works out the fee on a specific estate.

What is probate in BC? A plain-English guide for executors and families

Q: What is probate in BC?

Probate is the BC Supreme Court's confirmation that a deceased person's will is valid and that the named executor has the legal authority to administer the estate. The court issues a Grant of Probate (or a Grant of Administration where there is no valid will), which the executor shows to banks, the Land Title Office, and investment firms before those institutions will release the estate's assets.

Q: Is probate required in BC?

Not always, but usually for an estate of any meaningful size. Banks, the Land Title Office for any real estate held in the deceased's sole name, and most investment firms require a Grant before releasing assets above their internal threshold. An estate made up only of joint-tenancy property, registered accounts with named beneficiaries, and small bank balances may not need probate at all.

Q: How long does probate take in BC?

Once a complete application is filed, the BC Supreme Court Probate Registry currently issues the Grant in about 4 to 8 weeks. The work before filing — locating assets, obtaining valuations, giving notice to beneficiaries — usually takes longer than the registry stage. A straightforward estate runs about 4 to 6 months from death to distribution; a contested estate can run for years.

When someone dies, the people left to deal with the estate usually run into the same word within the first week — probate — without anyone having explained what it means. This guide sets out what probate is in BC, when it is required, what passes through it, how long it takes, and what it costs, in plain English.

What is probate?

Probate is the BC Supreme Court’s confirmation of two things: that a deceased person’s will is valid, and that the executor named in it has the authority to administer the estate. The court records that confirmation in a document called a Grant of Probate.

That document is what the rest of the world asks for. A bank holding the deceased’s account, the Land Title Office holding their home, an investment firm holding their portfolio — none of them will hand assets to an executor on the strength of the will alone. They want the court’s Grant, because it protects them: once they have released assets to the person the court has confirmed, they are off the hook. Without it, those institutions usually will not move the money, even where the will is clear and the executor is obviously the right person.

Where there is no valid will — or no named executor able to act — the court issues a Grant of Administration instead, appointing an administrator under the priority rules in the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA). The administration that follows is substantially the same; the difference is in who applies and how their authority arises.

Is probate required in BC?

This is the question most families actually care about, and the honest answer is: it depends on what the estate is made of.

Probate is generally required when the estate holds assets that a third party will not release without the Grant. In practice that means:

Real estate held in the deceased’s sole name, or as a tenant in common. The Land Title Office requires a Grant before it will transfer title.
Bank and investment accounts in the sole name of the deceased, above the institution’s internal threshold (each bank sets its own, often somewhere in the tens of thousands).
Any asset where the institution holding it asks for the Grant before releasing it.

Probate is often not required where the estate passes outside the will entirely — for example, a surviving spouse who owns the home in joint tenancy, holds joint bank accounts, and is the named beneficiary on the registered accounts and life insurance. On the first death, there may be nothing that needs probate at all. Probate then becomes necessary on the second death, when the survivor’s estate passes to the next generation.

We assess at the outset whether a particular estate needs probate. Sometimes the answer is that only one asset — the house — is driving the requirement, and the rest would have passed without it.

What passes through probate, and what passes outside it

The single most useful idea for understanding probate is the line between estate assets and non-estate assets.

Estate assets pass under the will (or under WESA if there is no will) and go through probate. They include real property the deceased owned alone or as a tenant in common, bank and investment accounts in their sole name, vehicles, business interests, and personal effects.

Non-estate assets pass to someone automatically, outside the will, and do not go through probate:

Joint-tenancy property. A home or bank account held in joint tenancy passes to the surviving joint tenant by survivorship. (Whether to hold title as joint tenants or tenants in common is a consequential decision in its own right — we cover it in our guide to joint tenancy versus tenancy in common.)
Registered accounts with a named beneficiary — RRSP, RRIF, TFSA — pass directly to the beneficiary.
Life insurance with a named beneficiary pays directly to that person.
Trust assets held in a properly constituted trust are owned by the trust, not the deceased, and pass under the trust’s terms.

This line matters for two reasons. It determines whether probate is required, and it determines the probate fee — which is charged only on the value of the estate assets that actually pass through probate. It also explains why some probate-avoidance ideas backfire: putting an adult child on title to a home looks like it converts an estate asset into a non-estate one, but the tax, creditor, and litigation consequences usually cost more than the fee saved, as we explain in putting an adult child on title in BC.

How long does probate take in BC?

Two clocks run, and people usually only think about one of them.

The registry clock — the time the BC Supreme Court Probate Registry takes to review a complete application and issue the Grant — currently runs about 4 to 8 weeks for a straightforward file.

The work clock — everything the executor has to do before the application can be filed — usually runs longer. Locating the assets, obtaining date-of-death valuations, giving the notice WESA requires to beneficiaries and intestate heirs, and assembling the supporting documents is where most of the elapsed time goes. From the date of death to a final distribution, a straightforward estate runs roughly 4 to 6 months. A contested estate — a wills variation claim, a challenge to the will’s validity, missing beneficiaries — can run for years, with the assets frozen in the meantime.

What probate costs

There are two separate costs. The probate fee is paid to the Province on the gross value of the estate passing through probate: nothing on the first $25,000, a $200 base fee, 0.6% on the value between $25,000 and $50,000, and 1.4% above $50,000 — about $13,650 on a $1,000,000 estate. Legal fees for preparing and filing the application are separate.

We keep the fee math out of this guide on purpose, because it is worth getting precise on a specific estate. Our probate fee calculator works out the fee for any estate value, and our guide to probate fees in BC covers what counts toward the fee base and the legitimate tools to reduce it.

The probate process, in brief

The administration itself runs in a defined sequence — locate the will and assets, give notice, value and inventory the estate, file the application, administer the estate once the Grant issues, then distribute and account to the beneficiaries. We set out each of those steps, and what the executor is responsible for at each one, on our probate practice page.

If you are an executor

If you have been named as an executor and you are not sure what to do next, the useful first step is small: find the original will and the death certificate, and write down the assets you know about. With that, we can tell you whether probate is required for this particular estate, roughly how long it will take, and what it will cost. Contact us with the basics and we will come back with an outline of the process for the specific estate and a fee estimate.