3. Check if you can apply to be estate trustee 

Usually, only Ontario residents can be an estate trustee for a person who lived in Ontario and died without a will. Or for a person who lived in Ontario and had a will but did not name an estate trustee in it.

The usual order in which people can apply to be estate trustee, is based on how closely they're related to the person who died. The order is the person's:

1. married or common-law partner
2. adult children
3. adult grandchildren
4. adult great-grandchildren, and so on if there's a direct relationship to the person who died
5. parents
6. sisters, brothers, or any siblings
7. grandparents
8. other relatives such as uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and great-grandparents

If a person living outside Ontario wants to be estate trustee, they need to qualify in other ways. It's best they get legal help.

No relatives in Ontario

If there are no relatives in Ontario, a suitable person might apply to be estate trustee, such as:

• a person living in Ontario who's nominated by the closest relative or
• relatives of the person who died a creditor of the estate in Ontario

A Government of Ontario agency called The Public Guardian and Trustee becomes the estate trustee if there's no one else who can do the job.

The court decides

You may want to be an estate trustee but there may be other people who are above you on this list. In this situation, the court often needs those people to give up their right to be estate trustee.

Sometimes the court also wants most, or all, of the beneficiaries who live in Ontario to agree to you becoming estate trustee. If there's more than one person with the right to apply, the court can decide whether to appoint one or more of those people.

Claim against the estate

If you plan to make a claim against the estate, such as a dependant’s support claim or an equalization claim, you cannot be the estate trustee.

If you have the right to make a claim but do not plan to make one, you may be able to be the estate trustee.