How long does probate take in Ontario?

The honest answer first: the court part of probate in Ontario typically takes about 8 to 16 weeks, and the full settlement of an estate usually runs 6 to 18 months. Not all of that waiting is the court's, so here is the breakdown.

Stage 1: Preparing the application (2 to 6 weeks)

Before anything is filed, the executor gathers the estate's information: the original will, the death certificate, an inventory of what the deceased owned and owed, and the value of the estate. The court application needs the full asset picture because the Estate Administration Tax is calculated on it.

This is the stage where most avoidable delay lives. Families discover the picture is incomplete: accounts nobody knew about, statements that stopped arriving, investments held at institutions nobody can name. Each institution takes its own weeks to respond.

Stage 2: Court processing (8 to 16 weeks)

Once the application is filed, the Superior Court of Justice processes the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. Timing varies with the region and the court's workload, and applications with errors or incomplete information are returned and restart the clock. This is the part people usually mean when they ask how long probate takes.

Stage 3: Administering the estate (several months to over a year)

Probate is not the finish line. After the Certificate is issued, the executor still has to collect assets, pay debts and taxes, file the final tax return, account to beneficiaries and distribute the estate. Most estates are fully settled within 6 to 18 months of death, and complex or contested ones take longer.

Where the delay actually comes from

Add the stages up and a pattern shows: the single biggest source of delay is not the court. It is the discovery work before and around the court process. Waiting on institutions to confirm accounts. Finding out about a creditor after you thought the estate was clean. Restarting because the asset list was incomplete at filing.

That is the part that can be compressed. Complete asset discovery and debt reconciliation before filing means the application is right the first time, and the Estate Information Return that follows it is defensible.

What Succession Intel does about it

We handle the research and compilation of assets and debts. Give us the intake information and within 5 business days you have a Estate Research Report: every discovered account and asset, every reconciled creditor claim, in a structured format your lawyer can work from directly, or you can file from with confidence.

You do not need a lawyer to use it, and it does not replace one. It replaces the weeks of phone calls and statement-hunting that otherwise stretch Stage 1 and Stage 3.