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Why trust us? A fair question.

You have never heard of us, and you are about to type in real information about a real family. You should not have to take our word for anything. So this page does not ask you to. It shows you what you can check.

Every rule we use has a source

The interview runs on more than 90 written rules — the court's own published rules, not our opinions. Every rule records where it came from: Ontario's laws, the court forms website, the courts' practice directions. When we can't find an official answer, we don't guess — we tell you to ask a professional. That is a rule too.

The forms are the court's own files

We fill the exact Word files the court publishes — never look-alike copies. Compare for yourself on the court's own website. Our form list is current to the August 2025 updates, and we re-check the court's index monthly — last checked July 2026.

20 courthouses, each checked twice

Your filing steps name a real courthouse with a real address and a real filing email. Every one of the 20 courthouses we list was checked against Ontario's own pages, then checked again separately. Each card shows the date we last checked it.

We test on 15 practice families

Our software carries more than 1,400 automatic self-checks. When we test, 15 invented practice families go through the whole interview, start to finish. Thirteen get complete court packages built — including one estate at exactly $150,000. Two are designed to be turned away, and we check that they are. You can see one of those packages yourself on the sample page.

A machine checks this website's numbers

Every time this site is updated, a machine compares the numbers on it with the software itself: the prices, the $150,000 line, the tax math, the courthouse count. If a page and the software disagree, the site will not publish.

We turn people away — before they pay

Our questions check your situation against 28 kinds of estates we don't handle — where a lawyer is the right help. If yours is one of them, we say so plainly, point you to the Law Society of Ontario's free referral service, and you pay nothing. A tool that takes money from everyone is a tool you should not trust. And we do not hide the list — all 28 are written out below.

The 28 kinds of estates we send to a lawyer

If any of these is true for you, our questions stop before you pay and point you to a lawyer. We built these stops on purpose. They protect you.

A few rarer paperwork problems can also stop the questions along the way. When that happens, we stop the same way — before you pay.

  • There is no signed will, or none can be found.
  • The will is written by hand — all of it, or some of it.
  • Something on the will was crossed out, written in, or changed after signing.
  • The will may not have been signed or witnessed the right way. For example, a person who inherits signed as a witness, or it was signed over video.
  • The will has no sworn proof page, and neither witness can be found.
  • Only a copy of the will can be found — not the paper with the real ink signatures.
  • There is more than one will.
  • The will was signed outside Ontario.
  • The will is not written in English.
  • The will names someone else to be in charge — not you.
  • You are applying because the person who died owed you money.
  • The person the will chose has died, and the will names no backup.
  • You live outside Canada.
  • Someone who inherits is under 18.
  • An adult who inherits may not manage their own money and choices.
  • There is no way at all to reach one person who inherits.
  • Someone named in the will died before the person who made it.
  • A gift in the will names a good cause, but no group to give it to.
  • The will was signed before a divorce. The former husband or wife is still named in it.
  • The person and their husband or wife were living apart when the person died.
  • The person owed about as much as they left behind — or more.
  • The person owned all or part of a business.
  • The person who died lived in a First Nations reserve community.
  • The person who died lived in another province or territory.
  • The person who died lived outside Canada.
  • Someone already sent papers to a court about this estate.
  • Someone may fight the will, or fight you being in charge.
  • Family members are racing each other to file first.

Need help finding a lawyer? The Law Society Referral Service is free to use. It is run by the body that licenses Ontario lawyers. It can connect you with a lawyer for a free first talk of up to 30 minutes.

A promise with teeth

If the court returns your application because of a fixable error in our documents, we fix them and give you the new package free — for 12 months. That is our Fix-It-Free Promise, written down, with examples.

Your information is protected — specifically

Answers locked with AES-256 encryption before storage, stored in Canada, payment on Stripe's page, no trackers anywhere, and a delete button that really deletes. The details are on the security page, in plain words.

And how to check we're real

We are NeuraBuild Solutions Inc., a registered Ontario company — anyone can search the name in the Ontario Business Registry, free. We will never ask for your Social Insurance Number, a bank login, or any password. And a real person answers support@probateprep.ca within one business day. More ways to check us are on the about page.

One honest limit, stated plainly: we are self-help software, not a law firm, and we do not give legal advice. When your estate belongs with a lawyer, our job is to tell you so.