What does Probate mean and do I need it?
A will is necessary to ensure a smooth transition of your estate to your loved ones--so when does it need to be probated?
A will is proved authentic or valid by a Court. The process is called Probate. The Probate process then is simply a first step towards gathering the assets of the one who has died, then later distributing them as the person wished it done. It also furnishes the authority to one or more persons who had been chosen to take on that responsibility, and are willing to accept it. Not all estates require probate. Often, particularly in cases where a married person dies and leaves his or her assets to the surviving partner, it is not necessary, and the expenses (legal, governmental etc.) can and should be saved, to the benefit of those left behind. Generally, the need arises only when a bank or land registry insists upon it. The person selected for the task is called the Executor. It is not necessary for an Executor to hire a lawyer, but experience helps, a lot of experience helps a lot, and lawyers, especially the more senior ones, have that experience.
This scenario seems uncomplicated: mom dies, she had been widowed several years prior, and dad's RRSP became a "roll over" to her, since she was his named beneficiary. She had no need to probate his will, and didn't do so. She also overlooked naming a new beneficiary for what then became her own asset. Mom had made a will that mirrored dad's, and saw no reason to change it after he died. Having some funds available, and encouraged by our government to save them, she opened up a TFSA. She named her daughter, who lived near her, as beneficiary on it (to make it easier for probate to be avoided a second time) and forgot about it after that. She remembered that her will divided everything equally between her daughter and her son, and both were her executors, and that is what she wanted.
So what happened? Not what mom intended: the daughter receives the entire TFSA without any need to probate, since she is the named beneficiary; the Bank requires probate for the RRSP, to be sure that it is paid out to the proper recipient, and the son and daughter each end up with one-half of it; the income tax consequences of the inheritances are inequitably apportioned between son and daughter; and finally, a lawyer is needed. It is a tough task for that lawyer, and it soon becomes expensive, because the children fall out with one another, and mom could "roll over and over" in eternity.