Usually yes. Most civil claims survive death and are continued by the estate trustee, though some personal claims do not.
The Canadian position
The executor decides whether to pursue or settle, subject to accounting to the beneficiaries.
Litigation costs come from the estate and reduce every share.
The Islamic position
Recoveries form part of the tarikah and are divided by the shares.
An executor who settles unreasonably may be answerable for it.
RRSPs, TFSAs, joint tenancy and beneficiary designations are all newer than the four schools, so this is not a madhhab difference and we have built no four-school table for it. What the schools do agree is the test: the tarikah is what the deceased owned at the moment of death, not how the asset moved afterwards. Applying that test to Canadian instruments is a present-day question, and named bodies reach opposite results — AMJA and Qatar’s Islamweb keep an earned plan in the estate; Singapore’s MUIS treats a nomination as a completed lifetime gift. No source on either side reasons from probate.
No school ruled on this instrument; named present-day bodies differ. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Assets that pass outside the estate — are they part of the tarikah?.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.
Citations & sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to a source below. Details change — check the original source before relying on any figure, fee or legal position. Anything under “further reading” is related material, not a source for what is stated here.
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- Apply for probate of an estate — Government of Ontario
- Estate Administration Tax — Government of Ontario
- Estates Act, RSO 1990, c E.21 — Government of Ontario
- How do costs work in ontario civil litigation — Treadstone Law
- Estate trustee accounting beneficiaries ontario — Treadstone Law
- How long executor has to settle estate ontario — Treadstone Law
- Third party claims ontario civil litigation — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law