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This article provides general information about executor compensation in Ontario as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. It draws on the Trustee Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. T.23, the Rules of Civil Procedure (rules 74.17 and 74.18), O. Reg. 26/95 under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, the Court of Appeal's decision in Wall v. Shaw, 2018 ONCA 929, Canada Revenue Agency guidance, Law Society of Ontario and Steps to Justice materials on the compensation convention, and a Hull & Hull LLP summary of Perlini v. Martone, 2024 ONSC 6265, for the five factors courts apply.
Executor compensation Ontario law allows comes from a single sentence that never mentions a number. The percentages almost everyone quotes, 2.5% on the money in and 2.5% on the money out, come from judges rather than the legislature, and a judge can still cut them, raise them or refuse them. Knowing that changes how both sides of an estate should read the figure.
If you are the estate trustee, the word Ontario law uses for an executor, the questions arrive in a predictable order: how much, when you can take it, whether it is taxed, and what happens if a beneficiary objects. If you are a beneficiary, the same questions run the other way. This guide answers them in that order, with a calculator that lays the figure out the way it appears in a set of estate accounts. It sits under our wider guide to estate planning in Ontario.
If the number is already in dispute, the wills and estates lawyers on Olanur handle passings of accounts and compensation objections across Ontario.
Executor compensation Ontario: the short answer
An Ontario executor is entitled to a fair and reasonable allowance for the work, and courts usually start from about 5% of the estate's value, then adjust it.
- The law sets no percentage. The Trustee Act, s. 61(1), allows "such fair and reasonable allowance for the care, pains and trouble, and the time expended in and about the estate, as may be allowed by a judge".
- The convention is 2.5% on four accounts. Capital receipts, capital disbursements, revenue receipts and revenue disbursements, plus a care and management fee of 2/5 of 1% a year where assets are held and invested.
- A judge checks it against five factors. The size of the estate, the care and responsibility involved, the time spent, the skill shown and the success of the administration.
- A will can fix it instead. Where the will sets the compensation, s. 61 does not apply at all (s. 61(5)).
- It is taxable income. The Canada Revenue Agency treats a non-professional executor's fee as income from an office: reported on a T4, with CPP and income tax deducted.
One sentence in the Trustee Act, and what it leaves out
The whole statutory basis is s. 61 of the Trustee Act. It promises a fair and reasonable allowance for "the care, pains and trouble, and the time expended in and about the estate", to be allowed by a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, and it gives no rate, no cap and no formula.
Three other parts of the section matter in practice:
- It can be settled without a lawsuit. Compensation "may be settled although the estate is not before the court in an action" (s. 61(2)).
- A judge fixes it on a passing of accounts. The judge "may from time to time allow a fair and reasonable allowance" when passing the accounts (s. 61(3)).
- A lawyer-executor can be paid for legal work too. Where a lawyer is the trustee and did necessary professional work, the allowance can be increased to reflect it (s. 61(4)).
Everything else, including the 2.5%, is judge-made. That is why the same estate can produce different numbers: the starting point is shared, and the finish depends on how the work was done.
The convention: four 2.5% lines and a management fee
The executor compensation Ontario courts start from prices the estate's accounts, not its value. Each dollar that moves through the estate counts once when it comes in and once when it goes out, so a simple estate that is collected and then paid out in full produces a fee of about 5% of its gross value.
The four accounts come from the way Ontario estate accounts must be kept under rule 74.17 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, and a Law Society of Ontario continuing-education paper by Kathleen Robichaud, The Six-Minute Estates Lawyer 2019, sets out what goes in each:
- Capital receipts are the assets collected after death: bank balances, the proceeds of selling the house, investments realized, and the CPP death benefit.
- Capital disbursements are the money paid out of capital: funeral costs, the Estate Administration Tax, income tax, legal and accounting fees, and, importantly, the interim and final distributions to beneficiaries.
- Revenue receipts are income earned after death, such as interest, dividends and rent.
- Revenue disbursements are payments out of that income, including income paid on to beneficiaries.
The paper traces the guideline to Jeffrey Estate (1990), a Surrogate Court decision it says "has not been overruled", and gives the usual percentages as 2.5% of each of those four, "plus a care and management fee of 2/5 of 1% of average annual value of the assets". Steps to Justice, the public legal-information site run by Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO), puts the same convention as "about 5% of the estate's value, and sometimes, an additional care and management fee of 2/5 of 1%".
The care and management fee is the part most often misunderstood. It pays for holding and investing assets over time, such as a trust for a child until age 25, and on an ordinary estate that is collected and paid out it is the exception rather than the rule.
Executor compensation calculator, Ontario
Statement of compensation claimed
Enter the estate's accounts. The figures start as a round illustrative estate, not a typical one.
| Account | Amount | Rate | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital receiptscourt convention, not statute | $600,000 | 2.5% | $15,000 |
| Capital disbursementscourt convention, not statute | $600,000 | 2.5% | $15,000 |
| Revenue receiptscourt convention, not statute | $3,000 | 2.5% | $75 |
| Revenue disbursementscourt convention, not statute | $3,000 | 2.5% | $75 |
| Conventional starting point | $30,150 | ||
That is 5.0% of the capital collected. A judge treats it as a starting point, then tests it against the factors below.
CRA treats your fee as income from an office: the estate reports it on a T4 slip, box 14, deducting CPP and income tax but not EI.
For contrast, the rate Ontario legislated for an attorney under a power of attorney for property (O. Reg. 26/95) would produce $36,180 on the same accounts. It does not apply to executors.
The bill nobody budgets for
Families plan for the probate tax and rarely for the executor's fee, even though on most estates the conventional fee is several times larger.
Ontario's Estate Administration Tax is nothing on the first $50,000 of an estate and $15 for every $1,000 or part of $1,000 above that, according to ontario.ca. Our guide to probate fees in Ontario covers the tax in full. Set the two side by side on a simple estate and the gap is the story.
Computed from ontario.ca's Estate Administration Tax rule (updated June 2026) and the court convention on executor fees
Ontario probate tax next to the conventional executor fee on the same estate
A simple estate: every asset collected once and paid out once. The fee is the 2.5% in plus 2.5% out starting point.
- $100,000$750 tax · $5,000 fee
- $250,000$3,000 tax · $12,500 fee
- $500,000$6,750 tax · $25,000 fee
- $750,000$10,500 tax · $37,500 fee
- $1,000,000$14,250 tax · $50,000 fee
- $1,500,000$21,750 tax · $75,000 fee
- $2,000,000$29,250 tax · $100,000 fee
Axis runs to $100,000; the $2,000,000 fee of $100,000 sits at its edge.
- $640,000$8,850 tax · $32,000 fee
Probate tax $8,850, conventional executor fee $32,000: the fee is about 3.6 times the tax.
The fee shown excludes revenue accounts and any care and management fee, which add to it, and it is a starting point a judge can raise, cut or refuse. Many executors waive it entirely. Estate Administration Tax: ontario.ca, $15 per $1,000 or part thereof above $50,000. Fee convention: Law Society of Ontario CLE (2019) and Steps to Justice. Not legal advice.
At $500,000 the tax is $6,750 and the conventional fee $25,000; at $1,000,000 the tax is $14,250 and the fee $50,000.Consider a daughter in Kingston named as the only executor and the only beneficiary of her father's $640,000 estate, a house that sells for $520,000 and $120,000 in savings. The Estate Administration Tax is $8,850. If she collects everything and pays it all out, the conventional fee is $32,000, about 3.6 times the tax. Because she inherits the residue anyway, a fee mostly moves money from one of her pockets to the other, and only the fee shows up on her tax return, which is why many executors in her position waive it.
Five questions a judge asks before approving the number
The percentage is only the first step toward the executor compensation Ontario courts will approve. Judges first test a compensation claim against the tariff, then check the result against five factors drawn from Toronto General Trusts Corp. v. Central Ontario Railway (1905), the approach the Court of Appeal endorsed in Laing Estate v. Hines in 1998, as the Toronto estates firm Hull & Hull LLP summarizes the case law.
| Factor | What pushes the fee up | What pushes it down |
|---|---|---|
| Size of the estate | A large estate with many assets | A small or simple estate |
| Care, responsibility and risk | A business to run, a dispute to manage, a vulnerable beneficiary | Assets that were already in one bank account |
| Time spent | Years of work, many transactions | A few weeks of paperwork |
| Skill and ability shown | Careful records, sound investment, good decisions | Mistakes that cost the estate money |
| Success of the administration | A clean, prompt wind-up | Delay, losses or litigation the executor caused |
The examples in the table are illustrations of each factor, not tests taken from any one decision.
Where the work was light or poorly done, a judge can allow less than the convention, and where it was dishonest, nothing at all. In Perlini v. Martone, 2024 ONSC 6265, two siblings acting as estate trustees of their father's $1.73 million estate claimed 5%, or $86,670.30. A third sibling objected. The court found the estate uncomplicated, a large sum of cash poorly managed and the trustees uncooperative in sharing information, and it reduced the fee to 3%, $52,000 in total, according to Hull & Hull's summary of the decision.
In Farmer v. Farmer, 2025 ONCA 442, the Court of Appeal upheld an order that an executor repay $9,600 in executor fees to his aunt's estate. As Canadian Lawyer reported the case, the application judge found he had disentitled himself to fees by a rapacious approach to the administration, which included paying himself nearly $10,000 six months after her death, before any beneficiary was paid, although the will did not provide for advance compensation.
When you can take the fee: agreement, the will, or a judge
Taking compensation before the accounts are approved is common, and it is only safe in three situations. The Court of Appeal set them out in Wall v. Shaw, 2018 ONCA 929, at paragraph 43: an estate trustee may pre-take compensation only "(i) upon agreement of all persons with a vested or contingent interest (if they are sui juris), (ii) where approved by the court, or (iii) where the will so provides".
Outside those three, the court said at paragraph 44, an executor "risks liability for breach of trust", and on a passing of accounts "risks court approval of a reduced amount of compensation and an order requiring repayment of the difference to the estate".
In practice that means the residuary beneficiaries see the number first. Steps to Justice describes the usual route: send the beneficiaries of the residue the fee you plan to take and how you calculated it, and ask them to agree. That consent route only works for people who are legally able to agree, which Wall v. Shaw puts as "sui juris". A minor, or an adult who lacks capacity, cannot consent for themselves, and where the Children's Lawyer or the Public Guardian and Trustee represents a beneficiary, rule 74.18(3.1) requires that office to be served on a passing of accounts.
What a passing of accounts looks like
If beneficiaries do not agree, the executor applies to the Superior Court of Justice to pass the accounts under rule 74.18. The timetable is fixed by the rule:
| Step | Deadline under rule 74.18 |
|---|---|
| Executor files the accounts, verified by affidavit, with the certificate of appointment | When the application starts |
| Notice of application and draft judgment served on everyone with an interest in the estate | At least 60 days before the hearing (75 days if served outside Ontario) |
| A beneficiary who objects serves a notice of objection | At least 35 days before the hearing |
| Objection withdrawn, if it is | At least 15 days before the hearing |
| Judgment without a hearing, where no objection stands | Record filed at least 5 days before the hearing date |
Rule 74.17(1)(i) requires the accounts to include "a statement of the compensation claimed by the estate trustee", and a statement of how assets were valued if a management fee is claimed. That statement is what the calculator above reproduces.
Consider three siblings in London, Ontario, where two are named co-executors of their mother's $900,000 estate and the third is a beneficiary who thinks $45,000 is too much for eight months' work. If the co-executors took the fee without her agreement, they are outside all three Wall v. Shaw situations. On a passing, a judge weighs the five factors, and if the figure is cut, the difference has to go back to the estate. The cost of that hearing is its own question, which our guide to what a lawyer costs in Ontario helps frame.
The fee is income: what the CRA does with it
Executor compensation is taxable, and how it is reported depends on whether acting as an executor is the person's business.
The CRA's payroll guidance on fees for services draws the line:
- Most family executors earn the fee outside the regular course of business, so it is income from an office or employment. The estate reports it in box 14 of a T4 slip, and CPP and income tax are deducted, but not EI.
- Professional executors, people who act as an executor in the regular course of a business, earn fees for services. These are reported on a T4A slip in box 48, and CPP, EI and income tax are generally not withheld.
An inheritance is different. The CRA lists most inheritances among the amounts that are not reported or taxed. That contrast is the whole reason an executor who is also a beneficiary should think before claiming. A tax question that goes further, such as the estate's own returns or a CRA review, is the point where when to hire a tax lawyer in Canada becomes relevant.
When the will has already set the number
A will can replace the whole system of executor compensation Ontario courts apply. Section 61(5) of the Trustee Act says nothing in the section applies "where the allowance is fixed by the instrument creating the trust", so a clause that names a fee, a percentage or a flat legacy for the executor usually controls.
That is worth deciding while the will is being written. Our guide to how to make a will in Ontario covers choosing an executor; adding a compensation clause at the same time avoids the negotiation entirely. A will can also say the executor is to receive nothing, which a family member may accept and a professional will not.
Expenses are not compensation
Out-of-pocket costs are reimbursed separately and do not come out of the executor compensation Ontario judges approve. Under s. 23.1 of the Trustee Act, a trustee who thinks an expense is properly incurred may pay it directly from the estate, or pay it personally and recover the amount, and the Superior Court of Justice may later disallow it if it was not properly incurred.
So mileage to the house, postage, and the cost of a locksmith or an appraisal sit in the accounts as disbursements, not as part of the 2.5%. What does not count as an expense is the executor's own time, which is exactly what compensation pays for.
The one estate fee Ontario did legislate
There is a percentage in Ontario law, but it belongs to a different job. An attorney acting under a continuing power of attorney for property, or a court-appointed guardian of property, is entitled under O. Reg. 26/95, s. 1, to 3% on capital and income receipts, 3% on capital and income disbursements, and 3/5 of 1% of the annual average value of the assets as a care and management fee.
That regulated rate stops at death, when the power of attorney ends and the executor takes over. Our guide to power of attorney in Ontario covers the attorney's role, and the calculator above shows what the regulated rate would produce on the same accounts, for comparison only.
When it helps to talk to an estates lawyer
Plenty of estates settle the fee with a short email and a signature. A few situations are worth a professional read before anyone takes money out.
- A beneficiary has objected, or you expect one to.
- A beneficiary is a minor or lacks capacity, so they cannot consent to the fee themselves, and the Children's Lawyer or the Public Guardian and Trustee may have to be served.
- The estate includes a business, rental property or assets held in trust for years.
- The will says something unclear about compensation, or nothing at all on a large estate.
- A dependant may have a claim, which can reach assets the will never touched, as our estate planning guide explains under a dependant's claim.
Our guide to finding a lawyer in Canada walks through the search, and the Ontario lawyer referral service guide covers the free consultation route. Before you pay anyone, our lawyer lookup guide shows how to confirm the licence with the Law Society.
How Olanur helps
We built Olanur so an executor or a beneficiary with a deadline does not have to start by cold-calling firms. You describe the estate and the disagreement in plain language, and we match you with wills and estates lawyers on our platform who handle passings of accounts and compensation disputes in Ontario.
Matching is free, and you see each lawyer's background and consultation fees before you book. For the arithmetic, the calculator above sets out the conventional claim line by line. For a number that someone is going to contest, the wills and estates lawyers on Olanur can review the accounts with you.
Frequently asked questions
Ontario law allows a fair and reasonable allowance under s. 61 of the Trustee Act, with no set percentage. Courts usually start from 2.5% each of capital receipts, capital disbursements, revenue receipts and revenue disbursements, about 5% of a simple estate's value, plus 2/5 of 1% a year where assets are held and invested, then adjust for the work done.
There is no statutory maximum for executor compensation in Ontario. The conventional percentages are a starting point, not a cap, and a judge on a passing of accounts can allow more for unusually heavy or skilful work, or less, or nothing, where the work was light, poor or dishonest. A will can also fix the amount.
Under s. 23.1 of the Trustee Act, an executor may pay an expense properly incurred in administering the estate directly from the estate, or pay it personally and be reimbursed. Travel, postage, appraisals and locksmiths are typical. The court can disallow an expense that was not properly incurred, and the executor's own time is covered by compensation, not expenses.
Yes. The Canada Revenue Agency treats a fee earned outside the regular course of business as income from an office: the estate reports it in box 14 of a T4 slip and deducts CPP and income tax, but not EI. A professional executor's fee is business income reported on a T4A, box 48. Most inheritances, by contrast, are not taxed.
Only in three situations, according to the Court of Appeal in Wall v. Shaw, 2018 ONCA 929: with the agreement of everyone with an interest who is legally able to consent, with court approval, or where the will provides for it. Otherwise the executor risks a breach of trust finding and an order to repay any amount a judge does not approve.
On a passing of accounts under rule 74.18, a beneficiary served with the application can serve a notice of objection at least 35 days before the hearing. A judge then decides the compensation, testing the conventional percentages against five factors: the estate's size, the care and responsibility, the time spent, the skill shown and the success of the administration.
Before you claim, or before you sign
If you are the executor, write out the four accounts before you write down a number: what came in, what went out, what income it earned and what you paid from it. The calculator does the rest, and the five factors tell you whether the convention is generous or thin for the work you actually did. If you are also a beneficiary, compare the fee with what you would inherit anyway before you decide to take it.
If you are a beneficiary, ask for the same four accounts and the calculation behind the figure before you agree. Agreement is easy to give and hard to take back. When the figure looks wrong, or the executor has already taken it, the wills and estates lawyers on Olanur can tell you whether a passing of accounts is worth the cost.
Priya Kapoor
Family, Real Estate & Criminal Law Contributor
Priya focuses on family law, real estate transactions, criminal defence, and civil disputes, guiding Canadians through some of the most consequential legal moments in their lives.
