A low New Brunswick fee, and an executor two provinces away
If your family is in New Brunswick, the court's share of your estate is small. Above $20,000 the fee is $5 for every $1,000 of value, so a $300,000 estate is charged $1,500 and a $1,000,000 estate $5,000. Next door in Nova Scotia the charge above $100,000 is $16.95 a thousand, more than three times as much on each further thousand of value.
The part that is harder to plan for is not the money. Maritime families spread out, and the person you name as executor may well be living in Halifax, Calgary or somewhere further again. That distance shapes the first few months far more than any fee schedule does.
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.
What the court will ask of your estate
The schedule starts small and stays reasonable. Estates of $5,000 or under pay $25, and the fixed amounts rise in steps to $100 at $20,000. Beyond that the rate of $5 per $1,000 applies, adding $500 for each additional $100,000 of value with no ceiling. A house, a savings account and a vehicle in an ordinary New Brunswick estate will usually produce a fee in the hundreds or the low thousands.
That is a kindness worth appreciating, because it removes a pressure families elsewhere feel keenly. Nobody in New Brunswick needs to reorganise a lifetime of property to shave a court fee. What is left to plan for is everything that happens between the death and the day the estate is finally settled, and that part is no easier here than anywhere else.
When the executor lives somewhere else
An estate is generally dealt with where the person lived, so a son in Alberta or a daughter in Ontario will be settling a New Brunswick estate from a distance. That means flights or long drives, a house to insure, heat and check on through a winter, meetings with a lawyer arranged around a work schedule, and paperwork moving by courier. An executor living outside the province may face additional requirements too, which is a question for a New Brunswick lawyer at the outset.
None of it is quick. A grant commonly takes months to issue, and until it does the deceased's accounts are closed to the executor as firmly as to anyone else. The funeral home, the municipal taxes and the utility bills carry on arriving, and somebody has to pay them from their own account and keep the receipts. Doing that from two provinces away, in the weeks after a death, is a heavier task than the fee schedule would suggest.
Money that finds people wherever they live
A life insurance policy paid to a named beneficiary is untouched by any of this geography. The insurer pays the person you chose directly, wherever they live, on proof of death. The money never becomes part of the estate, is never counted in the value the fee is calculated on, and normally arrives within weeks of a completed claim rather than after the grant.
In practical terms that is what pays for the flight, the funeral, the winter heating bill on an empty house and the court fee itself, without an out-of-province executor funding all of it personally. Registered plans with a named beneficiary generally pass the same way, and property held jointly with right of survivorship goes straight to the surviving owner, though adding a joint owner surrenders control and exposes the asset to their creditors, so speak to an estate lawyer before rearranging anything. Fee schedules are set by regulation and can change, so confirm the current figures with the court, and treat nothing here as legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
What will probate cost my family in New Brunswick?
Above $20,000 the fee is $5 for every $1,000 of value, so $100,000 costs $500 and $500,000 costs $2,500. Smaller estates pay a fixed amount between $25 and $100. Legal and accounting fees are separate, and they are usually the larger part of the bill.
Can my daughter in another province act as my executor?
Generally yes, though an executor living outside New Brunswick can face extra requirements and a good deal of practical difficulty managing a property from away. It is worth discussing with a lawyer, and worth discussing with her, before the will is signed.
Why does Nova Scotia charge so much more than we do?
The two provinces set their court fees separately. Above $100,000 Nova Scotia adds $16.95 for each $1,000 of estate value while New Brunswick charges $5, so a similar house and a similar life can produce very different bills on either side of the border.
What can my family reach before the grant arrives?
Only what sits outside the estate. Life insurance and registered plans with a named beneficiary are paid directly, usually within weeks, and jointly held property passes to the surviving owner. Everything under the will waits for the grant, which commonly takes months to come through.
Should we sell the house before I die to make things simpler?
That is a far bigger question than probate, and the fee saved in New Brunswick would be small: $500 for every $100,000 of value. Tax, your own housing needs and what you want the family to inherit all matter more, and an estate lawyer or advisor can weigh them together.
Other free tools
See the full set on the tools index.
Other provinces: Nova Scotia · Ontario · British Columbia · Saskatchewan · Newfoundland and Labrador · Prince Edward Island · Alberta · Yukon, NWT & Nunavut · Manitoba · Quebec