Manitoba dropped the fee — what your family still faces
There is good news in Manitoba and it deserves saying plainly. Since November 2020 the province has charged no probate fee on the value of an estate. Whatever you leave behind, your family will not be handed a bill calculated on it. All that remains is an application fee of about $70 to file the paperwork.
It would be a mistake to read that as nothing to plan for. What makes settling an estate hard for a family was never mostly the court's fee, and the one figure that regularly runs into the thousands is a tax bill the repeal did not touch.
Probate Fee Calculator
Probate fees are charged on the value of the estate that passes through the will. Assets with a named beneficiary — life insurance, and in most provinces registered plans — pass outside the estate and are not counted.
Fee schedules are current published rates and change from time to time; confirm with the provincial court or an estate lawyer before relying on a figure. Quebec charges no probate fee for a notarial will. Manitoba abolished probate fees in 2020.
One worry Manitoba families can put down
In several provinces the size of an estate is itself a problem, and people rearrange their affairs to shrink the figure a court will charge on. Manitoba removed that pressure completely. A $200,000 estate and a $2,000,000 estate cost the same to put before the court, so you can hold your assets in whatever arrangement suits you while you are alive, rather than whichever one is cheapest to die with.
That is a real freedom. It means the house can stay in your name alone if that is what you prefer, without a fee schedule nudging you toward putting an adult child on the title and all the complications that brings. It also means the inventory of what you owned is an honest exercise rather than an expensive one, since no part of it is being charged for.
The bill that did not go away
The number that catches Manitoba families out arrives from the tax return rather than the courthouse. An RRSP or a RRIF is generally brought into income on the final return unless it passes to a spouse or common-law partner, and on a plan of any real size the resulting tax can be many times larger than any probate fee ever was. For plenty of ordinary households it is the single biggest cost at death.
There is a timing problem inside it. Where the plan has a named beneficiary, the institution pays that person directly and fairly quickly, while the tax generally lands on the estate. A family can therefore watch the plan money reach one person while the executor is left with a tax bill and a bank account nobody can touch. It is solvable, but only if somebody raises it with an accountant beforehand.
What arrives while everything else waits
A grant commonly takes months to come through, and until it does the deceased's accounts are generally frozen and the land titles office will not register anything. The funeral home, the property taxes, the utilities and any mortgage keep to their own schedule regardless. Somebody has to carry those bills in the meantime, and it is usually the same person who is arranging the service.
A life insurance policy with a named beneficiary answers both problems at once. It is paid directly to the person you chose, so it never enters the estate, and it normally reaches them within weeks of a completed claim. It can cover the funeral, the carrying costs and the tax the estate will owe on a registered plan. Joint ownership with right of survivorship also moves an asset outside the estate, though it costs you sole control and exposes the asset to the other owner's creditors, so speak to an estate lawyer before changing how anything is held. Fee and tax legislation can change, so confirm your own position rather than relying on a page.
Frequently asked questions
Is it true there are no probate fees in Manitoba?
Yes. The province abolished them in November 2020, so nothing is charged on the value of an estate. A nominal application fee of about $70 remains for filing, and it is the same amount whatever the estate happens to be worth.
So is there anything left to plan for?
Quite a lot. Tax on an RRSP or a RRIF at death, legal and accounting fees, and the months during which your family cannot reach the estate's accounts are all untouched by the repeal, and every one of them is usually larger than the fee ever was.
Should we still keep our beneficiary forms up to date?
More than ever, because in Manitoba that is what designations are for. They decide who receives an asset and how quickly, not what the estate is charged. A form naming a former spouse still governs the money, and a will cannot correct it afterwards.
How long will my family wait for the estate?
A grant commonly takes months, and settling the estate afterwards frequently takes a year or more where property has to be sold or a tax clearance obtained. Money paid to a named beneficiary is not caught by any of that and usually arrives within weeks.
Can life insurance be used to pay the tax on a RRIF?
It often is, and that is a common reason for holding a policy where a registered plan will be taxed on the final return. Because the payout goes straight to whoever is named, the family has cash available before the estate is settled. An accountant can size the likely bill.
Other free tools
See the full set on the tools index.
Other provinces: Nova Scotia · Ontario · British Columbia · Saskatchewan · Newfoundland and Labrador · New Brunswick · Prince Edward Island · Alberta · Yukon, NWT & Nunavut · Quebec