Form 74C: Ontario's probate certificate, in plain words

Form 74C is the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. It is the probate certificate itself — the paper the whole application asks the court to give. In a standard Ontario probate application, the applicant fills in a draft of this certificate. The draft goes in with the rest of the package. If the court is satisfied, the registrar — a court official — signs it under the court seal. (Small estates, up to $150,000, use Form 74.1C instead.)

What is a draft certificate?

A draft certificate is the court’s certificate, filled in ahead of time but not yet signed. The applicant prepares Form 74C as a draft, and the registrar signs and seals it if the court approves the application.

The draft travels with the main application form — Form 74A. For every form in the package, see our full list of Ontario probate forms.

Who fills it in, who signs it

The applicant fills in the draft. But here is the part people miss: the applicant never signs this form. Nobody swears it, either. It is not an affidavit, so no commissioner is involved. The only signature line belongs to the registrar. The court adds the date and the seal when the certificate is issued. The form’s key sentence says the certificate “is hereby issued to the above-named applicant under the seal of the court.”

So the draft goes to court with its signing lines empty. That is correct. Those lines are the court’s to fill.

What the form asks for, part by part

The top of page 1. A line for the court file number, and a spot marked “(Court seal)”. The court applies the seal.

The estate section. The form opens “IN THE ESTATE OF” and asks for the name of the person who died — plus “any alternate name(s) specified on the Application form”. That means every other name listed on Form 74A must appear here too. Then the date of death, and three boxes:

• “with a Will dated [DD/MM/YYYY]”
• “with Codicil(s) dated [DD/MM/YYYY]” (a codicil is an add-on to a will)
• “without a Will”

The bracket sets the date order: day first, then month, then year. The section ends with the home address at the time of death and the person’s job (“Occupation”).

The applicant section. Name, job if any, address, email, and phone number. The form says “(Reproduce the following section for multiple applicants.)” — so with two applicants, the block appears twice. There is also a line for a trust officer. That line is used only when the applicant is a company, such as a trust company.

The certificate type. A list of ten kinds of certificate, with this instruction: “Check only one of the following and delete all others.” For a standard application with a valid will, the matching type is “Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will”. The other nine cover special cases — no will, a replacement (“succeeding”) trustee, foreign appointments, and more.

Page 2. It repeats the estate name and the file number. Then come up to eight sentences that go in only when they apply. The main one: when there is a will, this sentence goes in — “Attached to this document is a copy of the deceased’s last Will dated (insert date)”. (The form skips it for one rare type, the “during litigation” certificate.) Other sentences cover a will signed remotely, a court order, and a person who gave up the right to apply. Three more cover a trustee named in the will who died first, is under 18, or is a “mentally incapable adult”. The last one attaches a certified copy of a foreign court’s papers, for the two foreign types. Sentences that do not apply are removed.

The signing block. “DATE:”, a “Registrar” signature line, and “Address of court office”. All three are for the court.

The last page. The official file ends with a backsheet (Form 4C) — a labelling page with the court file number, the names, and contact details.

Mistakes that get this form bounced

A bounce means court staff send the package back to be fixed. The rules say the registrar refuses an application that does not satisfy them, and sends the reasons in writing (Form 74O). These are the known traps on Form 74C:

1. The names don’t match the application. The form asks for the name of the person who died and every other name given on the application form. If Form 74A lists an alternate name and the draft certificate leaves it off, the two forms disagree.

2. More than one type is picked — or the extras stay in. The form’s own instruction is strict: check one type “and delete all others”. Leaving the unused nine in the draft goes against what the form says to do.

3. Somebody signs it. No applicant signature. No commissioner. A draft that arrives signed was filled in wrong — the only signature belongs to the registrar.

4. Dates in the wrong order. The will and codicil dates use [DD/MM/YYYY]: day first. A month-first habit turns March 4 into April 3 on this form.

5. Page 2 is missing its sentences. When there is a will, the attached-copy sentence with the will’s date must go in. When a person gave up the right to apply, the form asks for that sentence too. A page 2 without a required sentence is incomplete.

Where to get it and where it goes

The court publishes Form 74C on its official forms site as a Word file — there is no PDF version on the index. The current version is dated February 1, 2022. The download already includes the backsheet page.

The draft certificate is filed as part of the application package. Draft certificates are on the court’s list of documents that may be filed by email. Email filings use PDF copies — one court form per PDF. Each email must stay inside both published limits: 35 pages and 35 MB. The original paper will still travels to the courthouse in person, by mail, or by courier. A scan is not enough.

If the application is granted, the court’s e-filing page says the probate certificate “will be electronically issued and delivered by email”. A paper copy is available on request. The court’s own guidance says applications are typically processed within 15 business days — longer if anything is missing.

Sources

• Official estates court forms index — the free forms
• Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194 — Rule 74 probate applications
• Apply for probate of an estate (ontario.ca)

Sources last checked 14 July 2026.