It is a provincial fee charged on the value of assets passing through probate. It can be reduced — but the usual methods also remove assets from the faraid shares.
The Canadian position
Ontario charges roughly 1.5% above $50,000; Alberta caps at $525; Manitoba charges nothing. Nova Scotia is among the highest.
Common reduction techniques are joint ownership, beneficiary designations, multiple wills and inter vivos trusts.
The Islamic position
Every one of those techniques moves an asset outside the estate. That is precisely the pool the fixed shares apply to, so aggressive probate planning and a faraid distribution work against each other.
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 →
Do not let a tax saving quietly rewrite your distribution. Decide asset by asset which outcome matters more.
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.
- 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
- Death of an RRSP annuitant — Canada Revenue Agency
- Death of a TFSA holder — Canada Revenue Agency
- What to do when someone has died — Canada Revenue Agency
- Joint ownership vs beneficiary designation avoid probate ontario — Treadstone Law
- What assets go through probate ontario — Treadstone Law
- Assets excluded from probate ontario joint ownership beneficiary — Treadstone Law
- Joint account avoid ontario probate tax — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law