Sometimes, but the conflict is obvious and compensation for both roles is scrutinised. Many firms decline.
The Canadian position
Sometimes, but the conflict is obvious and compensation for both roles is scrutinised. Many firms decline.
Provincial law governs administration, so confirm the position where the estate will actually be administered.
The Islamic position
The fixed shares apply to the net estate after funeral expenses, debts and any bequest capped at one third.
Where a Canadian mechanism has no classical counterpart, treat it as a contemporary question for a qualified scholar.
Two things are agreed and one is disputed. Agreed: if the testator or the judge fixed the wasi a fee, he may take it, rich or poor; and a wealthy wasi for whom nothing was fixed takes nothing, on the words of Surah an-Nisa 4:6, “whoever is well off, let him abstain”. The dispute is over a wasi who was given no fee and simply does the work. The Hanbali and Maliki schools allow a wage for the work, treating him as an agent, and in the Maliki school the judge must fix one on request in proportion to his labour. The Shafi’i school lets an outsider take exactly the wage his work was worth and makes him liable for a penny more, even if he needed it. The Hanafi school’s sound view is that a wasi named by the deceased gets no fee at all — only a judge-appointed one does.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — May the wasi be paid out of the estate?.
Related madhhab issue: Who may be appointed wasi (executor and guardian).
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.
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
- Executor compensation ontario — Treadstone Law
- Executor compensation ontario 2 — Treadstone Law
- Executor compensation ontario — Treadstone Law
- Executor conflict of interest ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law