The customary 'executor's year' is the period before beneficiaries can press for distribution. It is an expectation rather than a statutory deadline.
The Canadian position
Beneficiaries generally cannot demand payment within the first year. Beyond it, unexplained delay may support an application to pass accounts.
The Islamic position
Islamic practice favours prompt settlement, so a year-long administration should be explained to the heirs rather than left as silence.
The shares vest at death. The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia records no disagreement among the jurists that an estate carrying no debt passes to the heirs from the moment of death, and that it does so compulsorily — an heir need not accept it. Delay is therefore not withholding a benefit but withholding property that already belongs to someone else. No school states a deadline. What the four differ on is whether a debt-encumbered estate vests at death at all, and so whether a division made before the debts are cleared is void: the Hanafi and Maliki schools undo it, the Shafi’i and Hanbali schools do not. The enforcement mechanism is not a clock but a court — any co-owner may demand division, and the judge’s duty is to compel the one who refuses.
All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — How quickly must the estate be distributed?.
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.
- Administering estates — Government of Ontario
- 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
- Compelling executor to pass accounts ontario — Treadstone Law
- How long does executor have to distribute estate — Treadstone Law
- Executor release from beneficiaries before distribution ontario — Treadstone Law
- Executor cannot delegate duties ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law