Letters of administration in Ontario: probate with no will

Looking for “letters of administration”? You found the right page — under the current name. Ontario now calls the court paper a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. It is the document you apply for when someone dies without a will. If your application succeeds, it proves who is in charge of the estate. It gives that person authority to manage the estate’s assets and pay its debts.

One honest note before anything else: our software does not prepare no-will applications. It prepares applications where there is a valid will. This page explains the no-will path in plain words — and why a lawyer is the right help for it.

The name changed

For many years, the no-will grant was called letters of administration. The person who got it was called an administrator. Today, Ontario calls the court paper a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee, and one combined application form covers both cases — will or no will. The certificate itself still marks which kind it is: “with a Will” or “without a Will.”

The old words are not gone. Ontario’s court rules still define the certificate as meaning “letters probate” and “letters of administration.” So when a bank form or an older book asks for letters of administration, this certificate is what it means. “Estate trustee” is Ontario’s word for the person in charge — what other places call an executor or an administrator.

Who can apply when there is no will

A will names someone to be in charge. Without a will, the law decides who may ask the court.

Ontario’s guidance puts it simply: the spouse or common-law partner usually has the first right to apply. After that, a close adult relative can apply.

The law behind this is section 29 of the Estates Act. The court may appoint the married spouse, or the person who lived with the deceased as a couple without being married, or the next of kin — or more than one of them together. Note the word may. The law leaves the choice to the court. That is a judgment call, not a form to fill.

The bond: the big no-will difference

When the person died without a will, Ontario’s guidance says a bond must be filed with the probate application. (A bond is also needed when the applicant is not named in a will, or lives outside Canada and the Commonwealth.)

The bond comes from the Estates Act: every person granted administration must give one. It backs a promise to the court — to collect the estate, manage it properly, and account for it.

A judge can lower the bond or drop it. Asking means bringing a motion to the court, and Ontario’s own guidance warns that preparing those materials “can be complicated.”

Two exceptions are written right into the law:

• Surviving spouse. No bond is needed where the spouse gets administration, the estate’s net value is not more than the spouse’s preferential share (see below), and an affidavit about the estate’s debts is filed.
• Small estate. No bond is needed for a small estate — worth $150,000 or less — unless a beneficiary is a minor or is incapable.

The forms

The application form is the same with or without a will: Form 74A, the Application for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. The court rule sets different filing lists inside it for the two cases. Every application also includes proof of service (Form 74B or 74B.1) and a draft certificate (Form 74C).

The no-will extras both use Form 74G:

• Consents. Signed papers agreeing to the applicant’s appointment, from beneficiaries who together hold a majority of the estate’s value.
• Renunciations. A signed paper saying “I give up my right to apply,” from every person with an equal or prior right who is not joining the application.

That means finding people, explaining the situation, and collecting signatures before anything is filed.

Small estates work without a will too

The small-estate stream — for estates worth $150,000 or less — is open when there is no will. The application is Form 74.1A, with a draft Small Estate Certificate (Form 74.1C). The rule asks for a copy of the will “if any” — the will-related papers are needed only if a will exists. And as above, small estates usually need no bond.

Who inherits when there is no will

The Succession Law Reform Act sets the shares. In short:

If there is a spouse and no children or other descendants, the spouse gets everything. If there are children, the spouse first takes the preferential share — $350,000 for deaths on or after March 1, 2021 ($200,000 for earlier deaths). Of what remains, the spouse gets half if there is one child, or one-third if there is more than one. The children — or their own children, if a child died first — share the rest. Other relatives inherit only when there is no spouse and no descendants.

One caution. The law gives precise meanings to words like “spouse” and “separated” here — the court forms even ask whether the couple was separated at the time of death. A lawyer can confirm who inherits in your family’s situation.

Why we send no-will estates to a lawyer

Our software prepares probate applications where there is a valid will. It does not prepare no-will applications, and we say so before you pay.

Here is why. A no-will estate carries real judgment calls: who should apply is ultimately the court’s choice; the bond must be arranged, reduced, or dispensed with by a motion the province itself calls complicated; and consents and renunciations must be gathered from the right people. Those are not fill-in-the-form questions.

If there is no will, talk to a lawyer licensed in Ontario. The Law Society of Ontario’s free referral service can connect you with one.

Related guides

• Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee
• Probate in Ontario: a plain-words guide
• Small estates in Ontario: the $150,000 process
• How to probate a will in Ontario, step by step

Sources

• Apply for probate of an estate (ontario.ca) — no-will applications and the bond
• Estates Act, ss. 29 and 35–37 — who may be appointed; the bond and its exceptions
• Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules 74–74.1 — Forms 74A, 74G, and the small-estate stream
• O. Reg. 110/21 — the $150,000 small estate limit
• Succession Law Reform Act, Part II — who inherits when there is no will
• O. Reg. 54/95 — the $350,000 preferential share

All sources checked 16 August 2026.